Allen-Bradley is the brand-name of a line of Factory Automation Equipment manufactured by Rockwell Automation (NYSE ROK). The company, with revenues of approximately US$6.4 billion in 2013, manufactures programmable logic controllers (PLC), human-machine interfaces, sensors, safety components and systems, software, drives and drive systems, contactors, motor control centers, and systems made of these and similar products. Rockwell Automation also provides asset management services including repair and consulting. Rockwell Automation's headquarters is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower is a Milwaukee landmark featuring the largest four-sided clock in the western hemisphere.

History

The company was founded in 1903 as the Compression Rheostat Company by Dr. Stanton Allen and Lynde Bradley with an initial investment of $1,000. In 1910 the firm was renamed Allen-Bradley Company. In 1952 they opened a subsidiary in Galt, Ontario, Canada, that employs over 1000 people. In 1985 a company record was set as the fiscal year ended with $1 billion in sales. In February 1995, Rockwell International purchased Allen-Bradley for $1.651 billion, which is the largest acquisition in Wisconsin history. For all intents and purposes, Allen-Bradley took over Rockwell's industrial automation division.

Clifford Allen Bradley, Jr., known as Allen Bradley (born July 25, 1951), is an attorney and businessman in his native DeRidder in western Louisiana, who from 1984 to 1992 represented District 31 (Beauregard and Vernon parishes) as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

In July 2015, Bradley was listed by the Louisiana Secretary of State as a registered Republican voter.

Background

Bradley is the son of Clifford Bradley, Sr., of DeRidder and the former Clotilde Hooks (1923-2012), a daughter of the late Ruth Holly and Dayton Hooks of Emerson in Columbia County in south Arkansas. His mother, who was active in the First Baptist Church of DeRidder, is interred at Beauregard Cemetery. Bradley has three sisters, Julia Anderson and husband Ken of Westlake in Calcasieu Parish; Mary Ruth Corley and husband Roy of Austin, Texas, and Patrice Cason and husband Joe of DeRidder. His only brother, Robert Allen Bradley, was born and died on January 23, 1942.

Bradley graduated in 1973 from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and in 1976 from Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge.