General Radio Company (later, GenRad) was a broad-line manufacturer of

electronic test equipment Electronic test equipment is used to create signals and capture responses from electronic devices under test (DUTs). In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced. Use of electronic test equipme ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, U.S. from 1915 to 2001. During the middle of 20th century, they were a major competitor to

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

and

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...

History

On June 14, 1915, Melville Eastham and a small group of investors started General Radio Company in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, a few blocks northwest of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. During the 1950s, the company moved to

West Concord, Massachusetts West Concord is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Concord in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,320 at the 2020 census. Geography West Concord is located in central Mi ...

, where it became a major player in the

automatic test equipment Automatic test equipment or automated test equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the device under test (DUT), equipment under test (EUT) or unit under test (UUT), using automation to quickly perform measure ...

(ATE) business, manufacturing a line of testers for assembled

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...

s. 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 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 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 West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the village of Chestnut Hill and the town of Brookline to the north, the city of Newton to the northwest, t ...

, Massachusetts. In 2001,

Teradyne Teradyne, Inc. is an American automatic test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer based in North Reading, Massachusetts. Its high-profile customers include Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and IBM. History T ...

acquired the GenRad board test system lines, which were relocated to Teradyne's corporate campus in

North Reading, Massachusetts North Reading (pronounced, as is with Reading, Massachusetts, Reading as ()) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,554 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The area was first settled ...

. Among General Radio's accomplishments over the years have been: * The introduction of one of the world's first portable

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

s. * The production of many high-precision standards for

inductance Inductance is the tendency of an electrical conductor to oppose a change in the electric current flowing through it. The electric current produces a magnetic field around the conductor. The magnetic field strength depends on the magnitude of the ...

, resistance, and

capacitance Capacitance is the ability of an object to store electric charge. It is measured by the change in charge in response to a difference in electric potential, expressed as the ratio of those quantities. Commonly recognized are two closely related ...

. * The production of the

stroboscope A stroboscope, also known as a strobe, is an instrument used to make a cyclically moving object appear to be slow-moving, or stationary. It consists of either a rotating disk with slots or holes or a lamp such as a flashtube which produces br ...

as the ''Strobotac''. * The production of the

sound level meter A sound level meter (also called sound pressure level meter (SPL)) is used for acoustics, acoustic measurements. It is commonly a hand-held instrument with a microphone. The best type of microphone for sound level meters is the condenser microp ...

. * The ''Variac'' variable

autotransformer In electrical engineering, an autotransformer is an electrical transformer with only one winding. The " auto" (Greek for "self") prefix refers to the single coil acting alone. In an autotransformer, portions of the same winding act as both the p ...

, which was a U.S. trademark of General Radio from 1934 to 2001. * Invention of the "five-way"

binding post A binding post is a connector commonly used on electronic test equipment to terminate (attach) a single wire or test lead. They are also found on loudspeakers and audio amplifiers as well as other electrical equipment. History A binding post ...

connector. * Invention of the GR connector.

History

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links