Autolite has announced the 85th anniversary of its first spark plug, produced in 1936 at a facility in Fostoria, OH.

The company will continue the celebration throughout 2021 by refreshing vintage advertisements and hosting multiple sweepstakes targeted at Autolite fans in the professional and do-it-yourself automotive maintenance categories.

Autolite started in 1911 as a collection of two companies manufacturing buggy lamps.

By the 1930s, it had grown into a thriving automotive parts maker. Its history as a spark plug manufacturer began in the mid-1930s after Royce G. Martin, President of the Electric Autolite Company, opened a lab to develop the first Autolite spark plug with the help of a ceramic engineer, Robert Twells.

“Autolite is rooted in a tradition of automotive parts excellence, producing more than 10 billion spark plugs for some of the world’s most storied vehicle brands and discerning drivers,” said Carl Weber, Senior Marketing Director, First Brands Group.

For 85 years, Autolite has continued to use its spark-plug-specific focus to engineer ignition solutions for consumer vehicles, racecars, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, boats, lawnmowers, chainsaws, and many other gas-powered machines.

Learn more about Autolite and its lineup of spark plugs at autolite.com.