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Moments
in Time Return to Moments in Time Master Page It may seem out of place adding a couple of pages from the 1944 Rochester Products Division (RPD) WWII book " Contributing to Victory on Every Front" but in examination of its pre-war products reveals an important fact about business DR did not have within GM. Note on the first page that RPD was a component supplier to GM plants in New York, Maryland and New Jersey. Further examination of the second page shows that not only was RPD supplying starters, generators, ignition systems, voltage regulators and switches, but it was also producing parts that AC in Flint and Delco Products in Dayton were manufacturing. Further investigation has also shown that a GM component division in Syracuse, NY Brown-Lipe-Chapin (BLP), was set up in 1936 to produce headlamps, tail lamps, hub caps and bumper guards, which was the same product line that Guide Corporation of Anderson had. In fact, 17 men from Guide were sent to Brown-Lipe-Chapin in 1936 to help get it started. One source has claimed BLP was a Guide Plant but if so, it would not have carried the separate division name. It would appear that previous to WWII GM was not wanting to put all of its component manufacturing all in one division or one place. After WWII Rochester got into the carburetor business.
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