In July 1899, a Buffalo, New York inventor named Jesse Kester received U.S. Patent 628541 for "self-fluxing solder", wire and bar solder which contained its own flux. He started the Kester Electric Manufacturing Company the same year, renaming it the Chicago Solder Company in 1905. In the early days, the company hand-delivered solder to the Ford Motor Company. His solder eventually enabled the mass production of radios, TVs and telephones, with Chicago-based companies like Motorola and Zenith benefitting from the Kester invention. In 1929, the company was renamed Kester Solder. Two years later, they opened a manufacturing facility in Brantford, Ontario. Kester operated independently for nearly 40 years until its acquisition by Litton Industries in April 1967. The Brantford facility continued under Litton control.
In 2001, Litton was purchased by Northrop Grumann, and Kester was spun off three years later to American Capital Strategies Ltd., which paid $60 million for the company. In 2006, Kester was acquired by Illinois Tool Works (ITW) for an undisclosed amount.
These days, Kester has its headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Itasca, Illinois with additional manufacturing facilities in Mexico, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Brantford, Ontario was clearly a casualty.
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