TY - MANSCPT DB - Science History Institute DP - Science History Institute M2 - Courtesy of Science History Institute. Rights: In Copyright, D TI - Helipot Division: Workshop ID - 1z40ks818 AU - Beckman Instruments, Inc. DA - 1970/// YR - 1970 AV - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 59, Folder 20 VL - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 59, Folder 20 AN - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 59, Folder 20 UR - https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/1z40ks818 AB - Women employees and technicians assemble Helipot products at benches. The Helipot Division of Beckman Instruments mostly produced potentiometers and other electrical components. Potentiometers regulate the flow of electricity, like the volume dial on a radio. In 1940, Arnold O. Beckman was unsatisfied with dials on the market, so he designed his own helical potentiometers, or helipots, for use in his popular pH meter. The precision of this dial caught the eye of the MIT Radiation Laboratory’s secret radar project during World War II. Beckman redesigned the helipot to meet the needs of the United States military and set up a separate company, also called Helipot, to keep up with the demand for these knobs. In the 1950s, Helipot was reincorporated into Beckman Instruments as the Helipot Division and continued to make potentiometers and other electrical components for decades, those tiny dials becoming staples of the electronics manufacturing industry. KW - Electronic industries KW - Workshops KW - Potentiometer KW - Beckman Instruments, Inc. KW - Women employees LA - ER -