History

The path that Trans-Lux has followed since the early 1920s laid the foundation for the company we are today.  Following is a brief summary of the journey we’ve taken to get here.

History of Innovation

With the development of rear-projection technology in the early 1920s, Trans-Lux Daylight Picture Screen Corporation, the fledgling company that later became Trans-Lux Corporation, was founded by Percy Norman Furber. In the early years, rear projection technology was used in a lecture series as a visual aid that eliminated dimming of overhead lights. In 1923, this technology was installed at the New York Stock Exchange as a ticker tape projection system that changed the complexion of stock trading forever.  

Movies and Television

Advancements in rear projection technology led Trans-Lux Daylight Picture Screen Corporation to development of a total screen, projector and lens system, which made its debut at New York City’s Roxy Theater in 1927.  Trans-Lux Movies Corporation was born with the introduction of the company’s first newsreel theater in the 1930s. By 1950 Trans-Lux had expanded its “art” theatre operations to 14 locations and by 1955, Trans-Lux began distribution of European films, including a hard-won battle to run A Stranger Knocks to American audiences, paving the way for running of controversial films the likes of Deep Throat .

In 1956 Trans-Lux formed a television subsidiary to syndicate the Encyclopedia Britannica Films library to bring educational films to children.  Expansion in children's programming is evidenced by successful syndicated cartoons including Felix the Cat, Gigantor and Speed Racer .

In keeping with its expansion plans, Trans-Lux followed the suburban theater trend and built its first shopping center theater in 1964. Changes in theater economics led the “twinning” of theater auditoriums to reduce operating costs and later area localization to screens in the Northeast brought Trans-Lux through the slump of the 1970s.

In September 1973 Trans-Lux debuted the longest running multimedia program in history, “The New York Experience .” This major tourist attraction ran for more than 16 years in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center before closing in 1989.

Trans-Lux sold its northeast-based movie theatre chain to Paramount in 1986.  In 1988 Trans-Lux's Entertainment division began rebuilding its theater chain in select markets in the western Mountain States.  Trans-Lux sold its Entertainment division in July of 2008.  

Electronic Displays

In 1940 Trans-Lux launched another venture, purchasing a patent for a remote-control signaling system used in the famous Boston “Pill” sign, the first of the so-called “spectacular “ traveling message signs that would light up Broadway with messages circling the tops of the tallest buildings. By 1948 Trans-Lux News Sign Corporation was supplying electrical traveling signs to advertisers, publishers and radio stations throughout the U.S. In 1959, the Electronics Division was formed.

The tremendous boom in stock market activity in the early 1960s hastened the need for a ticker with a higher transmission speed. The industry’s first real-time stock ticker was introduced in 1965 as the Trans-Lux Jet, named for the jets of air that controlled character formation, becoming an industry staple.

The early 1970s brought an unexpected slump to the stock market and left Trans-Lux with many unrented Jets in storage.  Diversification was the answer and Trans-Lux began seeking new customers in the commodities field, where a modified version of the Trans-Lux Personal Ticker (a selective tape read-out device) replaced the Western Union ticker network at the Chicago Board of Trade. The 1974 introduction of the TLT Telex Teleprinter represented a complete breakthrough for the company into the general data communications field and the TLT is awarded a place in the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1981, Trans-Lux temporarily installed an experimental prototype of an LED stock market display on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The first entirely solid state, microprocessor wall ticker display, the LED Jet ^® , was installed at the New York Stock exchange in 1982.  The introduction of  DataWall ^® in 1984 allowed Trans-Lux to provide a new type of service and expand into new market areas. 

Expansion through acquisition began in 1985 with the purchase of SignLine (Cedar Rapids, IA), a firm that was a pioneer in designing and manufacturing  LED signage for gaming venues, airports and other public gathering places.  In 1986 Trans-Lux installed the mammoth “race book” at Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas, the first major display installation outside of the brokerage market.

Expansion into the outdoor market occurred in 1990 with the purchase of AS&I’s (American Sign & Indicator) contract portfolio of installed, leased signage.  In 1993 Trans-Lux purchased a portfolio of service and maintenance contracts for installed, customer owned signage from Winkomatic, the successor of AS&I.

In 1995, Trans-Lux acquired Integrated Systems Engineering, Inc. (ISE, Logan, UT) to round out the Trans-Lux product line to include high quality, cost-effective outdoor LED display systems for the custom commercial and sports markets. In 1997, Fairtron/Fair-Play of Des Moines, IA joined our corporate family and expanded our product line to include catalog scoreboards. In 2003, Trans-Lux sold the custom scoreboard division, which operated as Trans-Lux Sports, and consolidated the remaining custom commercial business into our Des Moines manufacturing facilities.

Trans-Lux Firsts
As an acknowledged industry leader in information display systems, the company has numerous “firsts” to its credit:

The first large-scale moving display in the world.
Installed in 1923 at the New York Stock Exchange, this Trans-Lux innovation provided simultaneous access to trading information.

The first rear-projection system.
Trans-Lux first presented this technology at the 1927 opening of New York's Roxy Theatre.

The first electronic, continuous-flow wall display.
Developed by Trans-Lux, this device was installed in 1965 to provide real-time stock information.

The first electronic memory teleprinter.
Trans-Lux introduced the TLT I teleprinter for the TELEX network in 1974. TLT I recorded the first message from Westar I (one of the nation's earliest communications satellites), and was later awarded placement in the Smithsonian Institution.

The first LED large-scale scrolling multi-line news display.
Trans-Lux developed the LED News Jet technology in 1983.

The first commercially viable low voltage wedgebase incandescent technology.
In 1989, Integrated Systems Engineering (ISE), a division of Trans-Lux, made lower power consumption and brighter displays a reality.

The first software application providing full news service.
Developed by Trans-Lux in 1993 for use with Dow Jones Financial News Services providing options for full news stories, first paragraphs, headlines only, and hot news interrupt.

The first digital full matrix LED display with an alarm system. 
Developed for the financial industry in 1996, the large-scale tricolor PictureWall with digital signal emulates data from a PC window while an alarm system polls for problematic anomalies.

The first compact .7-inch tricolor LED display to show alpha/numeric characters.
Installed in 1997, the .7-inch DataWall display is the smallest size LED character to be developed for the financial and other industries.

The first of its type "Spread Spectrum" wireless scoreboard controller.
Introduced by Trans-Lux’s Fair-Play division in 1999, the new controller enables event managers to manage content displayed on Trans-Lux Fair-Play’s new generation of scoreboards from anywhere in their facility.