With the development of the electrical industry there have sprung up various enterprises having to do with lighting equipment and such a concern is the Reliance Automatic Lighting Company, which was organized in Warren, Ohio, in 1909, but removed its business to Racine in 1911. The concern is owned and operated by Benjamin F. Flegel, who is engaged in the manufacture of an automatic time switch, a clock apparatus for turning lights on and off at prearranged times for store signs, windows and apartment house hall lights, etc., operating on one, two or three circuits. The device is most simple and reliable and is the cheapest machine of the kind on the market. The plant has had an average annual increase of forty per cent in its business. Mr. Flegel embarked in this undertaking with a borrowed capital of five hundred dollars mid something of the rapid and substantial growth of the business is indicated in the fact that he is now clearing over ten thousand dollars annually. He has invented and perfected a number of other articles which are proving of worth and his skill, ingenuity and business enterprise are proving the substantial basis upon which he is building his prosperity.
Source: Stone, Fanny S. Racine, Belle City of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement; Chicago: S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1916.