BRAINS BEHIND THE BOOM LIFT: PART TWO
Beginnings
Jay M. Eitel. Born in San Jose, California. 1916. Inventor of the boom lift.
Growing up in sunny California, Jay had spent much of his time around the produce California is known for. He spent the summer of 1944 in the orchards, picking cherries and no doubt keeping up with the events of World War II. The California heat and the strain of reaching from the top of the ladder to the higher branches of the cherry trees made his work grueling and inefficient.
Jay started to wonder if there was any way to eliminate some of the difficulties of his job. For example, the tall ladders used in the orchards were often quite heavy and awkward to move from tree to tree. And climbing to the higher rungs of the ladders meant that workers constantly faced the risk of falling.
In response, he began to set aside time in the evenings and on the weekends to develop a solution. In time, he came up with a device he called the “cherry picker”. Much like Ted Trump’s design, it was composed of a metal platform for the cherry picker. The platform connected to a telescoping steel arm via pivots. The telescoping arm was then welded to a truck chassis. Jay’s actual construction of the device featured a single lever to control it, making his boom lift a versatile and simple-to-use machine.
A Pause in the Work
Though Jay was excited to turn this new invention into a profitable company, the world was in the thick of World War II. To assist in the war effort, Jay’s brother had cofounded a communications company named Eitel-McCullough Inc. It developed and provided radar and shortwave communication systems for use in the war. Jay was offered employment at Eitel-McCullough, and readily accepted employment there until the end of the war.
He had to wait until the end of the war to continue with his lift idea, but his job also provided him with valuable experience in the field of telecommunications. And once the war ended, Jay was ready to pounce. He began by launching Telsta Corporation, a company featuring his cutting-edge aerial lift technology. And while he found demand for his products from fruit pickers and arborists, the real demand started to come from electrical and telecommunication companies.
At the same time demand skyrocketed, so did the number of Jay’s competitors. Realizing the need to preserve his ideas, he quickly began to patent his designs. Before long, a telecommunications company called General Cable Corporation extended an offer to purchase Telsta Corporation. Jay sold Telsta Corporation to General Cable Corporation in 1965.
Legacy
While Telsta Corporation has changed hands many times since then, the fundamental technology of the boom lift continues today. We see boom lifts on job sites around the world. Aircraft technicians see them in airplane hangars. Shoppers and entertainment seekers see them in their local malls or peeking behind roller coaster rides at amusement parks. Hollywood sees them frequently, from small sets to some of the biggest sets in the industry.
Jay’s contribution to the machine world has allowed humans to do their work more efficiently, quickly, and safely. If you need a boom lift for your next project, click here or call us at 1-800-674-1018!