We are a manufacturer of high quality Transformers, Reactors, Magneticsand other Power Quality Equipment. We have been in business since 1909 and are headquartered in Detroit, home of the Red Wings, Lions, Tigers and Pistons.
Dongan was established in Albany, New York in 1909 as the Dongan Electric Instrument Company. Our first products were ammeters and voltmeters for the growing automotive business. Dongan was acquired by Lyle J. Hicks in 1909, who had been working as an electrical engineer for General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. Dongan was then moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1911 and renamed Dongan Electric Manufacturing Company. The corporate name is taken from Governor Thomas Dongan, who was the first appointed Colonial governor of the Territory of New York in 1682!
The company then quickly began manufacturing low voltage bell ringing transformers. Some of the first UL approvals are dated February 10, 1911, covering door bell transformers with secondary outputs of 6, 12 and 18 volts. Success in the transformer industry led us into focusing our manufacturing efforts on transformers, the principal product on which the company competes in to this day.
The Roaring 20's ushered in popular and certainly more affordable console radios originally powered by dry-cell B batteries. During this time Dongan introduced radio voltmeters, amplifier transformers, filament heating transformers and chokes compatible with Raytheon, R.C.A., and Cunningham radio tubes.
This decade also saw the emergence of electric toys and trains. The demand for transformers to operate trains manufactured by Lionel, American Flyer, Ives and Bing was met with a series of various sized transformer products from Dongan.