TY - MANSCPT DB - Science History Institute DP - Science History Institute M2 - Courtesy of Science History Institute. Rights: In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable TI - Helipot potentiometers with eggshells ID - hd76s0103 AU - Armstrong & Hess DA - 1960/// YR - 1960 AV - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 86 VL - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 86 AN - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 86 UR - https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/hd76s0103 AB - This photograph is part of a series of marketing images used to demonstrate the small size of Helipot products. The text on the label identifies the products as Series 7260 multi-turn, wirewound potentiometers and the photographer, "A&H," as Armstrong and Hess. 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 - Scientific apparatus and instruments KW - Potentiometer KW - Eggshells KW - Beckman Instruments, Inc. LA - ER -