Ampro Corporation  was founded by Axel Monson who was born in Sweden in 1883. He arrived in the U.S. in 1902 and was employed by International Harvester.

In 1924 he began to study the motion picture industry and by 1929 had perfected a new 16mm. silent projector, known under the trade name

AMPRO, a name coined from Axel Monson Products. The business grew to such proportions that it employed 700 people.

In the early to late 1950's Ampro also produced a line of consumer reel tape recorders.