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Magnet wire · Later Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire
On the record
Founded: 1928 or 1929, Fort Wayne 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 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. 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 established.
Founder: George A. Jacobs (1877–1945) (entry 22). He left Dudlo / General Cable unhappy with the merged company and founded Inca as the first Dudlo spin-off. 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 detail, plant address, workforce and output figures for Inca as a standalone firm were not found; the standalone record is thin 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 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 and became Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire in Fort Wayne. Jacobs remained with Phelps Dodge for several more years, then moved to California; he died in 1945. 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 (entry 26). Inca therefore has no independent existence after 1930/31; its lineage ends inside Rea from 2006.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: George Jacobs biography (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 — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/2000/1910/ind6.php ; ACGSI / Allen INGenWeb, Dudlo page — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/dudlo-company-fort-wayne-indiana.html ; Rea Magnet Wire, official history timeline — https://www.reawire.com/about/rea/ . Sources as cited in the profile.