Both made their mark in the 1880s at Zurich's Oerlikon engineering works before entrepreneurial zeal saw them unite to found a company based on a clear vision: sending electricity over long distances to transform the world. Brown had already played a part in the 19th century 'War of the Currents' with a transformer and generator that demonstrated that direct current was better than alternating current for long-distance power transmission.
What became ABB began as a company called BBC, founded in Baden on October 2, 1891. Its vision of what electricity could do expanded quickly. In 1895, it helped electrify trams in the Swiss city of Lugano, then in 1899 produced one of the world's first electrically-driven locomotives to work the Burgdorf-Thun railway, Europe‘s first electrified normal-gauge track.
Further innovations followed throughout the 20th century: advances in steam and gas turbines; power transformers; electronic controls for industrial automation. And ABB reached across the globe too. Though it retains its global headquarters in Zurich, ABB employs 135,000 people in around 100 countries – including 27,000 in its US operations.
