Western Electric was not only a supplier of telephone-related products, but in its earlier days also made fans, motors, generators and other electrical hardware and also operated a large wholesale electrical supply buisness. These activities came to an end in 1925 when they sold their electrical supply division to a group of its employees, which renamed it Graybar Electric Co., after Elisha Gray and Enos Barton, the founders of the shop that became Western Electric. This motor was built to operate on direct current, still common in most cities at the time.