General Radio

General Radio Company (later, GenRad) was a broad-line manufacturer of electronic test equipment in Massachusetts, U.S. from 1915 to 2001.

Type 546-0, Audio-Frequency Microvolter
Type 716-C, Capacitance Bridge
Type 805-C, Signal Generator
Type 1540 Strobolume, a professional grade stroboscope

History

On June 14, 1915, Melville Eastham and a small group of investors started General Radio Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a few blocks northwest of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] During the 1950s, the company moved to West Concord, Massachusetts, where it became a major player in the automatic test equipment (ATE) business, manufacturing a line of testers for assembled printed circuit boards. It also produced extensive lines of electrical component measuring equipment, sound and vibration measurement and RLC standards. In 1975, the company name was changed to GenRad.

In 1991, a startup QuadTech[2] was founded as spinoff of GenRad's Instrumentation division and Precision Product lines, as well as the rights to use the "GenRad" and "General Radio" names. In 2000, IET Labs[3] acquired from QuadTech the GenRad RLC standards, impedance decades, megohmmeters, digibridges, audio lines, stroboscope lines. Then in 2005 IET Labs purchased the Digibridge and Megohmmeter lines, which continue to be manufactured in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 2001, Teradyne acquired the GenRad board test system lines, which were relocated to Teradyne's corporate campus in North Reading, Massachusetts.

Among General Radio's accomplishments over the years have been:

See also

References
  1. Burke, C.T. (Nov–Dec 1935). "The General Radio Company - No. 5 of a Series of Instrument Company Histories" (PDF). The Instrument Maker. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 18, 2018.
  2. QuadTech - About.
  3. IET Labs - About.

Further reading
  • The General Radio Story; Frederick Van Veen; 262 pages; 2006; ISBN 978-0615176659. (archive)
  • A History of the General Radio Company 1915-1965; Arthur Thiessen; 116 pages; 1965; ASIN B0006CAQII. (archive)
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