Belden Inc. changed the world of electronics with its invention of insulated wire for telephone switchboards and automobiles in the early 1900s. The company parlayed that success through three industrial revolutions to become a leading global provider of network infrastructure and digitization solutions—helping industrial and enterprise customers build their digital businesses of the future.

The story of Belden, founded by Joseph Belden and Albert Beutler in 1902, is told in Birth, Growth and Transformation, a 144-page, 120th-anniversary book that Essex produced for the company in November 2022. Created for a readership of customers, employees and investors, the book charts the company’s path as a prolific inventor of wire and cable that pushed the telephone, automotive, radio and television, cable TV and data communications industries forward before reinventing itself in the 2020s as a digital transformation company focused on industrial automation, broadband and smart building solutions.