Morse controls, marine controls, boat controls, controls for boat engines, mechanical controls for marine engines, throttle levers, etc. The truth is that there are a multitude of names for what we manufacture at Mechanis and which everyone knows by the common name of Morse controls. Why?
This is a typical case where the name of a trademark became permanently attached to one of its products. In other words, brand names become generic product names. Some examples that come to mind are Cola-Cao (cocoa powder), Post-it notes (self-adhesive paper), Tupper-ware (airtight containers), Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) or Pladur (plasterboard). Generally these products are attached to the first manufacturer to put them on the market, or sometimes to the manufacturer that makes them most popular.
In this case, the Morse controls come from the company created in 1940 by John F. Morse in Ohio, USA. Mr. Morse was an American inventor who developed numerous patents (more than 75) for different industries such as aviation, photography and especially the nautical industry.
Among those patents was the idea of combining acceleration and clutch in the same mechanism, which he had learned from the aircraft industry. In doing so, it revolutionised the marine controls industry worldwide. It was an avant-garde idea that is still used today as we do at Mechanis with our 120 models. He introduced what are now known as push-pull cables to the marine industry and they have been used ever since for both mechanical and steering controls.
Although the company was bought and repurchased over the decades, first in 1971 and then in 1988 and 2001 by the company also known as Teleflex Marine. The latter would change its name to the current SeaStar Solutions. The brand name has been maintained to this day and Morse controls can still be found on the market manufactured by SeaStar Solutions. The market is flooded with Asian-made copies of models designed by Morse Controls but with a much lower quality.
So what is the right name for this nautical industry product? At Mechanis we manufacture “marine controls” specifically mechanical controls. Each of these words defines and qualifies the product we make. Nothing too much and nothing too little. This is the generic name for us, but of course we understand that the combination Mando Morse is also used.
