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This Q-Meter was produced by Boonton Radio Corporation, which HP acquired in 1959. |
Boonton, New Jersey-based Boonton Radio Corporation was founded
in 1934 by W. D. Loughlin and several associates and was a manufacturer
of electronic test instruments. The new firm concentrated its engineering
skill on creating new measuring equipment for the still-young radio
industry.
HP acquired Boonton in 1959 as a wholly-owned subsidiary. By then
the firm had 150 employees and was a pioneer maker of precision
instruments for measuring electrical circuit quality and checking
aircraft guidance systems. In a year of phenomenal growth for HP
(the company acquired three other firms in 1959), Boonton added
to the HP family an old, well-established company with an excellent
reputation in a field closely related to many HP products.
The Q-Meter was Boonton's oldest instrument—the first one
having been introduced by the company in 1934. It measured the quality
factor of coils and other components used in electronic devices
and had broad applications in the testing of components and systems.
This particular Q-Meter was used for about 30 years by Rutgers
University professor Henry Torrey in a variety of nuclear magnetic
resonance studies.
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