General Radio
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronic test equipment |
| Founded | June 14, 1915 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Founder | Melville Eastham and investors |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Fate | Divisions acquired by QuadTech, IET Labs, and Teradyne |
| Successor | QuadTech, IET Labs, Teradyne |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, later West Concord, Massachusetts , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Melville Eastham (founder) |
| Products | Electronic test equipment including portable oscilloscopes, calibration standards, stroboscopes, sound level meters, Variac autotransformers, binding post connectors, GR connectors |
General Radio Company—later known as GenRad—was a prominent American manufacturer specializing in electronic test equipment, headquartered in Massachusetts from 1915 until 2001. Throughout the mid-1900s, it stood as a significant rival to Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix.
History
Established on June 14, 1915, by Melville Eastham alongside investors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General Radio moved its operations during the 1950s to West Concord, Massachusetts. There, it emerged as a leading entity within the automatic test equipment (ATE) sector, particularly with testers designed for assembled printed circuit boards. The company’s portfolio also encompassed a broad range of instruments for measuring electrical components, analyzers for sound and vibration, and standards for RLC measurements. In 1975, the firm adopted the name GenRad.
In 1991, QuadTech was formed as a spin-off from GenRad’s Instrumentation division and Precision Product lines, obtaining rights to the "GenRad" and "General Radio" trademarks. By 2000, IET Labs acquired several product lines from QuadTech—including GenRad’s RLC standards, impedance decades, megohmmeters, digibridges, audio devices, and stroboscopes—and continued production of Digibridge and Megohmmeter models in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, in 2001, Teradyne purchased GenRad’s board test system divisions and incorporated them into its facility located in North Reading, Massachusetts.
Key innovations attributed to the company include:
- One of the earliest portable oscilloscope models.
- Precision calibration standards for inductance, resistance, and capacitance.
- The Strobotac stroboscope device.
- The sound level meter instrument.
- The Variac variable autotransformer, which held a U.S. trademark from 1934 until 2001.
- The creation of the "five-way" binding post connector.
- The design and development of the GR connector.
Further reading
- The General Radio Story by Frederick Van Veen (2006) – an extensive company history accessible through IET Labs, Inc.
- A History of the General Radio Company by Arthur E. Thiessen (1965) – a detailed corporate chronicle covering 1915 to 1965, published by General Radio Company