Beckman Coulter
Beckman Coulter Inc., is a company that makes biomedical laboratory instruments. Founded by
Caltech professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a
pH meter that he had invented, the company eventually grew to employ over 10,000 people, with $2.4 billion in annual sales by 2004. Its current headquarters are in Fullerton, California.
In the
1940s, Beckman changed the name to Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. to sell oxygen analyzers, the Helipot precision
potentiometer, and
spectrophotometers. In the
1950s, the company name changed to Beckman Instruments, Inc..
Encyclopedia
Beckman Coulter Inc., is a company that makes biomedical laboratory instruments. Founded by
Caltech professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as
National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a
pH meter that he had invented, the company eventually grew to employ over 10,000 people, with $2.4 billion in annual sales by 2004. Its current headquarters are in Fullerton, California.
In the
1940s, Beckman changed the name to
Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. to sell oxygen analyzers, the Helipot precision
potentiometer, and
spectrophotometers. In the
1950s, the company name changed to
Beckman Instruments, Inc..
In 1955, Beckman established the seminal
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as a division of Beckman Instruments to begin commercializing the semiconductor
transistor technology invented by Caltech alumnus
William Shockley. Because Shockley's aging mother lived in
Palo Alto, California, the Shockley Laboratory was established in nearby
Mountain View, California, and thus, "
Silicon Valley" was born.
In 1982, The company merged into SmithKline to form
SmithKline Beckman, with Arnold Beckman as vice chairman, but regained its independence in 1989 after SmithKline merged with Beecham Group to form SmithKline Beecham .
In 1998, the company acquired Coulter Laboratories, and changed its name to what it is today.
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