Who started Honeywell?

Honeywell was started by Mark C. Honeywell in Wabash, Indiana in 1906. The company was originally known as the Honeywell Heating Specialty Company. Mark C. Honeywell founded the company to produce and market his lineup of water heater generators. He served as CEO from 1927 until 1933.

Mark C. Honeywell was born in Wabash, Indiana in 1874. He spent his childhood being raised by his parents in his hometown of Wabash and in Florida. Mark would go on graduate from Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, NY, before returning to his hometown. In 1905 at the age of 31, Mark was working as a plumber when he successfully installed the first hot water heating system in North America. The water heating system used principles from systems that were being used in England.

The water heating system became the flagship product for the Honeywell Heating Specialty Company that Mark founded in 1906. The company specialized in thermostats and automatic controls for heating systems, and operations were based in Wabash. Originally, the radiators for the water heater systems were imported from England, while the system containers were built in Wabash. Honeywell saw great success manufacturing and marketing these water heating systems.

The Honeywell Heating Specialty Company grew rapidly. By 1927, its annual sales were in excess of $1.5 million, and mores than 450 people worked in the Wabash factory. That same year, the company merged with the Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company, which was owned by W.R. Sweatt. This formed the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. Sweatt was named company chairman, while Honeywell was named President and CEO. Mark served in this role until 1933.

Mark died in 1964 at the age of 89. It wasn't until the late 1960s after his passing that the company he founded would begin getting involved in the security industry. This occurred when the company acquired the Security Burglar Alarm Company in 1969. The Honeywell security division expanded tremendously in the early 2000s when Honeywell acquired Pittway. This was important because Pittway owned Ademco, one of the industry leaders in security equipment.

All Ademco equipment was rebranded with the Honeywell name. This included the Ademco VISTA Series, which became known as the Honeywell VISTA Series. Since then, Honeywell was gone on to produce other excellent security systems, including the Honeywell LYNX Touch Systems and the Honeywell Lyric Security Controller. And the heating and cooling roots of Honeywell can still be seen today with the Honeywell T6 Z-Wave Thermostat, which is arguably the best smart thermostat on the market.