Ives
The Ives Manufacturing Company, an American toy manufacturer from 1868 to 1930, was the largest manufacturer of toy trains in the United States from 1910 until 1924, when Lionel Corporation overtook it in sales.Ives, founded in Plymouth, Connecticut by Edward Ives, initially produced paper dolls whose limbs moved in response to hot air, but soon began producing a wide range of toys. Its emphasis shifted to trains as its designs were copied by other toymakers who were willing to sell them more cheaply. Ives' trains were made of tin or cast iron and initially powered by clockwork, but like later electric trains, some models could whistle and smoke. A fire in its main factory destroyed its tooling in 1900, which prompted a re-design for 1901 that resulted in Ives' first toy train that ran on track. Although several companies were selling electric trains at the time, Ives opted to remain with clockwork.
Ives released its first electric trains in 1910, partially in response to less-expensive clockwork trains from other manufacturers, notably American Flyer. Ives produced trains in a variety of gauges, including O gauge and 1 gauge.
Competition continued to increase, eroding Ives' toy train sales. Meanwhile, construction toys were gaining in popularity, so Ives released a Meccano and Erector Set-like construction toy in 1913. Although it offered parts its competition did not, the set was not very successful and Ives withdrew it from the market in 1917.
Edward Ives died in 1918, but the company's fortunes improved due to World War I, which significantly reduced imports from Germany. Ives' son and successor, Harry Ives, had a heated professional relatonship with Lionel founder Joshua Lionel Cowen, in which they traded lawsuits and, starting in 1915, Lionel criticized the quality of Ives' offerings in print advertisements, calling its cars flimsy and showing a cast-iron Ives locomotive shattering into 15 pieces when dropped from a table, while a Lionel locomotive dropped from the same height would survive with only dents. Ives' subdued advertising stood in contrast to Lionel's bold and brash ads, and soon Lionel overtook Ives in popularity.
The seasonal nature of train sales caused concern for Ives, and Harry Ives sought to diversify by selling toy boats, which he hoped would support the company through strong summer sales. The first boats, released in 1918, were powered by a clockwork engine from an Ives O gauge train. However, the designs were unrealistic looking and had a tendency to sink easily. Ives had difficulty adapting its methods for designing and building trains to work for boats. Few Ives boats exist today, but it is unclear whether this was due to lack of popularity or their propensity to sink.
In 1921, Ives abruptly discontinued its slow-selling 1 gauge trains in favor of wide gauge trains, a standard Lionel had introduced several years earlier and called "Standard Gauge". Ives did not call its trains Standard Gauge, as Lionel had trademarked the name. While Ives was inconsistent in what it called its larger-gauge trains, it most frequently called it wide gauge. Numerous other companies also entered the wide gauge market in the early 1920s, increasing consumer interest in the size and forcing the manufacturers to innovate in order to survive.
In 1924, Ives introduced a locomotive engine that would change directions when its power flow was interrupted, a feature that Lionel would not offer for another two years. Even after Lionel's introduction, Ives' offering was unique in that it offered a neutral position as well as forward and reverse, and the engine's headlight continued to operate even when the train was in neutral. Ives charged a premium for this feature and it increased sales.
However, by the mid-1920s, Ives was losing money. Harry Ives relinquished his presidency in 1927, becoming chairman of the board and bringing in an outsider, Charles R. Johnson, as president, but problems continued and Ives' largest creditor sued in 1928. Ives filed for bankruptcy, reporting liabilities of $188,303.25. As Ives already had $245,000 in Christmas sales lined up, Johnson petitioned for a private sale and a quick settlement. The motion for a private sale was denied.
On July 31, 1928, Ives was purchased by Lionel and American Flyer for $73,250. The low price in comparison to the company sales was presumably due to liens on Ives' assets. Lionel and Flyer then operated Ives as a joint venture, retaining Johnson and Harry Ives as president and chairman, respectively.
Ives' line of toy boats was immediately discontinued, and much of Ives' train product line was replaced by relabeled American Flyer or Lionel product, and new designs were carried out using Lionel and American Flyer parts, even though the Ives designs were usually more realistic. There are several reasons for this. When Lionel and American Flyer bought Ives, they did not buy the factory or tooling, which they then had to rent. It may have been less expensive to use designs supplied by its parent companies than to rent the tooling to make the Ives designs. Some historians have speculated that the Ives tooling was worn out and no longer suitable for use. A third factor was that Lionel's and Flyer's manufacturing process was less labor intensive, which made their designs less expensive to manufacture than the Ives designs they replaced.
Whatever the reasons, the result was that the Ives product line after 1928 inherited many traits from three different product lines.
In 1930, Lionel bought out American Flyer's share in Ives and closed the Ives factory in Connecticut, moving operations to Lionel's New York factory. Lionel discontinued the Ives brand, except for the occasional re-issue, in 1931, although the Ives reverse unit lived on in Lionel trains, with a modified version of the Ives unit first appearing in Lionel trains starting in 1933. It would remain present in Lionel trains for more than 50 years.
Ives toys and locomotives are sought after by collectors today.