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 - Beckman Helipot Model 77P Helitrim trimming potentiometer with bee ID - wm117p19f AU - Armstrong & Hess DA - 1950/// YR - 1950 AV - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 85 VL - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 85 AN - Beckman Historical Collection, Box 85 UR - https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/wm117p19f AB - This photograph is part of a series of marketing images used to demonstrate the small size of Helipot products, in this case a trimmer potentiometer. 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 - Bees KW - Beckman Instruments, Inc. LA - ER -