The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
1928/29 – 1930/31
Founded: 1928 or 1929, Fort Wayne — the year is given as a range; the single year is not established. Two record-based chains conflict by one year and neither is a primary incorporation record retrieved: (1) the George Jacobs biography, citing Leininger (News-Sentinel, 12 Dec 1981) and Schwantes, Vision & Enterprise: Exploring the History of Phelps Dodge Corporation (2000), p.176, says Victor Rea became president of Dudlo in 1928 when Jacobs left to start Inca, and Rea's own company history / the Rea company account likewise places Jacobs leaving Dudlo in 1928 to form Inca; (2) the News-Sentinel's magnet-wire history (Frazier) says Jacobs founded Inca after he left General Cable in 1929, with no month. No directory listing, incorporation filing or contemporary newspaper notice was retrieved, so the entry carries 1928/1929, not one year. The name is printed both "Inca" and "INCA" in the sources; no source in hand explains the name, and no expansion of it is invented here — its derivation is not recorded.
Founder: George A. Jacobs (1877–1945) — (entry 22). He left Dudlo / General Cable unhappy with the merged company (ACGSI / Dudlo account) and founded Inca as the first Dudlo spin-off (News-Sentinel wording: "Jacobs himself founded the first spin-off, Inca Manufacturing"). No co-founder is named in any source in hand; none is invented.
What it did: Made magnet wire in Fort Wayne — the same enamel- insulated copper wire Jacobs had pioneered at Dudlo (entry 22) — as an independent producer after the Dudlo sale to General Cable. Product, plant address, workforce and output figures for Inca as a standalone firm were not found; the standalone record is brief beyond founding and sale.
Course: Standalone life was short — about one to three years on either dating (1928/29 to 1930/31). That brevity is itself the course the record supports; no expansion, move or peak figure is in hand.
Fate: Absorbed — sold to Phelps Dodge Corporation in 1930 or 1931 — the year is given as a range; the single year is not established. The Jacobs biography chain (Schwantes, p.176) gives 1930; the News-Sentinel gives 1931. Inca "formed the basis of the magnet wire unit based here" (News-Sentinel) and became Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire in Fort Wayne. Jacobs remained with Phelps Dodge for several more years, then moved to California with his wife, who was in ill health; he died in 1945 (Jacobs biography). The Fort Wayne Phelps Dodge operation that Inca founded was itself later bought by Rea: Rea purchased Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire Company North America on 14 February 2006, with plants in Fort Wayne and Monterrey, Mexico — (Rea official timeline; see entry 26). Inca therefore has no independent existence after 1930/31; its lineage ends inside Rea from 2006.
Sources:
- George Jacobs biography (Jacobs left Dudlo in 1928 to start Inca; Phelps Dodge bought Inca in 1930; citing Leininger, News-Sentinel, 12 Dec 1981, and Schwantes, Vision & Enterprise (2000), p.176) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jacobs_(inventor))
- Frazier, News-Sentinel, "City's magnet wire industry started with Dudlo" (Inca founded after Jacobs left General Cable in 1929; sold to Phelps Dodge in 1931, forming the basis of the magnet-wire unit based here) — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/2000/1910/ind6.php
- ACGSI / Allen INGenWeb, Dudlo page (Jacobs, unhappy with the new company, started INCA, which eventually became Phelps Dodge) — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/dudlo-company-fort-wayne-indiana.html
- Rea Magnet Wire, official history timeline (Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire assets purchased by Rea in 2006, plants in Fort Wayne and Monterrey) — https://www.reawire.com/about/rea/