History

In 1901, Per Alfred Stenberg established a foundry in the small town of Emmaboda in southern Sweden. One of the main products was molds for the glass industry. Per Alfred transferred ownership of the company to his sons. In 1922, Hilding Flygt set up a pump and fan sales company in Stockholm. Through a newspaper advertisement the two companies are brought into contact with one another in 1929, and led to the Stenberg brothers beginning to produce Flygt pumps in Emmaboda. Sixten Englesson, chief engineer, invented the first submersible drainage pump in 1947 and the first submersible sewage pump in 1956. In 1968, the Stenberg family sold the company to ITT Corporation. During the 1970s, the product range was expanded with mixers and other products.^[12][13]

History

The corporate history of Goulds Pumps began in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, when Seabury S. Gould purchased the interests of Edward Mynderse and H.C. Silsby in Downs, Mynderse & Co., a pump making business which had started up in 1840. The company, known as Downs & Company until 1869, cast and assembled the world's first all-metal pump in 1849.^[14]

In 1869, the Goulds name was added, and the company became known as Goulds Manufacturing Company. The Gould family ran the operation from 1872 until 1964, renaming the company Goulds Pumps Incorporated in 1926.

In the 1960s, Goulds expanded by adding acquisitions of companies in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York. The company expanded under a joint operational agreement into China, Singapore and Korea. By the 1990s, Goulds expanded into Austria, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela.

In 1997, Goulds Pumps was purchased by ITT Industries. Goulds and ITT served 130 nations combined. Goulds Pumps was a subsidiary with its own name under ITT. Goulds Pumps management moved back to Seneca Falls in 1998.

Branding under Xylem

On October 31, 2011, Xylem Inc. completed its spinoff from ITT Corporation,^[15] and had 2011 revenues of $3.8 billion.^[16] Goulds Water Technology is a brand of Xylem Inc. providing pumps for residential, commercial and agricultural applications and Goulds Pumps remains a part of ITT Corporation providing pump products for the industrial market.

Xylem comprises three business units – Water Solutions, Analytics, and Applied Water Systems. These three units are interconnected, anticipating and reflecting evolving needs and sharing their applications expertise to cover every stage of the water cycle. The Goulds Water technology brand^[17] is part of the Applied Water Systems business unit that manufactures centrifugal and turbine pumps, controllers, variable frequency drives, and accessories for agricultural, building trades, commercial and light industrial water and products for wastewater applications.

Corporate history

The company reaches back to 1948 when a three-man partnership was forged at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, US. This village, between Dayton and Columbus, still serves as the headquarters for what started as the "Yellow Springs Instrument Company" — now known as YSI Inc.^[20]

In the 1980s, Malte von Matthiessen succeeded Hardy Trolander as president. In 200z, Ron Geis appointed new general manager of YSI; former CEO Rick Omlor continues as executive advisor. In 200x, YSI merged with Analytics division of ITT Corp. to form new water company Xylem.

Branches

The firm opened branches in the 1990s in Japan (YSI (Japan) Limited), and then one in Hong Kong (YSI (Hong Kong) Limited). In the 2000s, they opened an office in Qingdao, China, followed by ones in Beijing and in Bahrain. They opened a specialized branch in Shanghai (Asian Hydroacoustics Center). In 200y?, they opened an office in Ireland, in 2008 in Australia. and in 200b in Abu Dhabi. In the US, they opened a Gulf Coast sales and service office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 200x.

Acquisitions

The firm acquired various companies: in the 1980s Design Analysis Associates, Inc., a firm founded by William I. Fletcher; and acquired Endeco, a Marion, MA, oceanographic data collection and monitoring company. In the 1990s they acquired Victory Engineering Company, Springfield, NJ to complement YSI temperature product line, and SonTek, a precision water velocity measurement company, founded in California; they also acquired controlling interests in Clandon Scientific in England In the 2000s, they acquired Hydrodta UK, and acquired environmental business from AMJ Equipment Corp and renamed the new environmental monitoring and services company AMJ Environmental in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 200a, Design Analysis Associates in Logan, UT, a manufacturer of data loggers and radar level sensors

Xylem announced that it would buy Sensus USA Inc., an advanced metering technology manufacturer, in August 2016.^[21][22] The acquisition was completed on October 31, 2016 for $1.7 billion.^[23]

Products

The company from the start introduced the first commercial product in many categories: In 1952, they introduced the first quartz crystal electronic stopwatch, and the first practical electronic thermometer. In 1956, first commercial heart-lung machine, in 1957, the first instantaneous blood-gas analyzer.^[24]

They continued development in their key area of temperature measurement. They produced the first interchangeable thermistor temperature probes in 1955, and developed it into a complete line of precision interchangeable thermistors in 1961, and in 1965 developed the first linear thermistor temperature sensor, which Industrial Research magazine recognized as one of the 100 most significant new technological products of the year. In other analytical instruments, they produced the first practical dissolved oxygen meter for field and laboratory use in 1965, which the same magazine recognized as yet another of the most significant technological products of the year.^[24]

Their oxygen meter had used the technique of polarography, and they developed further products on the same principle, including t the first immobilized-enzyme-activated polarographic sensor in 1972. They then developed further biomedical instrumentation: the first commercially successful whole blood glucose analyzer in 1975, the first commercial alcohol measurement instrument using immobilized enzyme electrode technology in 1982. They continued using immobilized enzyme techniques, for the first direct whole-blood L-lactate assays using immobilized enzyme electrode also in 1982. They also continued developing thermal technology, with the first commercial gallium melting-point temperature standard (29.7715 °C) in 1977 and the first robotic-manufactured glass-encapsulated precision thermistors in 1996.^[24]

They produced their first environmental monitoring instrument, a dissolved oxygen sensor, in 1992. They then developed instrumentation for conductivity measurement of ultrapure water in 1996, and the first accurate commercial fiber-optic based CO₂ measurement system, in 1998.

Beginning in the late 1990s, they began producing analytical software and integrated analytical instrumentation: BOD Analyst(TM), software that automates BOD testing. They also began developing integrated analytical systems: the YSI 600 QS Quick Sample multiparameter spot sampling system, the YSI 5200 Recirculating System Monitor, and the YSI 7100 Multiparameter Bioanalytical System (MBS).

Charitable

In the spring of 2015, Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory, a small nonprofit educational and scientific marine supply company, raised over $72,000 in a social media campaign to replace their ancient and failing Wedeco ozonator system for water purification required in their aquarium. Xylem Inc provided their new ozonator system "at cost", with full engineering support and installation allowing GSML to have the new system with the funds they had raised.^[25][26]