In January, 1934, the Philadelphia Electric Company officially adopted a little fellow who was to make quite a name for himself in the utility industry. His name was Reddy Kilowatt.

He got off to a good start. Within a few short years of his introduction to the public, Reddy Kilowatt was being used by more than 200 companies in the U.S. and abroad. There are still more than 100 companies using him today, with 60 of them utilizing Reddy Kilowatt as their main identification symbol.

The inventor, Mr. Collins, worked in a variety of businesses and served in World War I. He did not get into the utility industry until January 1st, 1925 when he went to work for the Alabama Power Company. They paid for his move from New York which cost $173.62 -- a sound investment on the part of the electric company. Mr. Collins was already hard at work during his first year trying to solve the problem of how to humanize the service in such a way as to sell the customer on the company itself. Collins' solution was Reddy Kilowatt.

The idea for Reddy Kilowatt came in a flash (literally) to his inventory, Ashton B. Collins, Sr. In the words of Mr. Collins, here is how it all started:

"On January 1st, 1925, I became connected with the Alabama Power Company and I began attending industry conventions where various speakers talked about the need of humanizing and personifying the electric industry with frequent reference to electricity as the servant of mankind. Coming back to Birmingham from one such meeting, I got to wondering what the electric servant should look like. Toying with those thoughts, I was looking out the office window on a stormy day. There was a flash of lightning and that's where I got the inspiration for Reddy Kilowatt. I adopted the family name Kilowatt as the most used word in the electrical dictionary though the least understood by the public. The name Reddy naturally fitted in because of the readiness of electric service, and the red glow of electric heat."

So Reddy Kilowatt was born. In 1934 Philadelphia Electric became the first licensed user of the program although Reddy had been used in advertisements as early as 1927.

Collins had found an industry that suited him and was elected president of the Alabama Electrical League which would allow him to push ahead with the Reddy Kilowatt program. In 1930, Collins left the Alabama Power Company to work within the industry, first with the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation and then the National Electric Light Association. During this time he was still refining Reddy Kilowatt symbol.

Through the years of its development, the Reddy symbol experienced a few changes in design. The program continued to flourish. Collins was joined by his son, Ashton B. Collins, Jr., and the name of his firm changed from Reddy Kilowatt Service to Reddy Communications. Collins, Jr. assumed the presidency and his father remained as the company's chairman. Ashton B. Collins died in 1976 at the age of 91. He built the acceptance of the symbol for so many utility companies that it is now a national figure known from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico. When you see Reddy you automatically think electricity.

The company is now located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1984 there were 158 client companies in 49 states and in 12 foreign countries, with a customer base of 86 million families.

(Editor's Note: At the Titusville, Florida, show last week, I was informed that Ashton B. Collins, Jr. had died at the end of October or early in September of this year.)

I am most grateful to Reddy Communications, Inc. for their assistance in preparing this article.