- Librascope
Librascope was a
Glendale, California division ofGeneral Precision Inc. founded in 1937 by Lewis W. Imm to improve aircraftload balancing , and acquired by General Precision in 1941.Librascope was a manufacturer of early digital computers sold in both the business and defense markets. They hired
Stan Frankel , aManhattan Project veteran and earlyENIAC programmer, to design theLGP-30 desktop computer in 1956.Librascope was eventually purchased by
Singer Corporation and moved into the manufacture of marine systems for the defense industry. The company specialized in Fire control systems for torpedoes - though they continued to work on a variety of other smaller military contracts through the 1970s.After Singer was taken over by
corporate raider Paul Bilzerian, the company was sold toLoral in 1992. The division was eventually sold toLockheed Martin and was eventually absorbed into the Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, but is now called Lockheed Martin NE&SS-Undersea Systems.According to documents on history.nasa.gov, the Centaur second stage rocket used a "Librascope 3"
External links
* [http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/ComputerAndMe/Part19.html LGP-30 description]
* [http://wps.com/projects/LGP-21/ LGP-21 description]
* [http://www.hp9825.com/html/stan_frankel.html Story of Stan P. Frankel, designer of the LGP-30]
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-l.html#LIBRASCOPE-C141 Librascope C141] airborne navigation computer
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-l.html#LIBRASCOPE-L90-I Librascope L90-I] general purpose aerospace computer
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-l.html#LIBRASCOPE-L600 Librascop L600] aircraft and missile guidance computer
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-l.html#LIBRASCOPE-L2010 Librascope L2010] general purpose rugged computer
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-l.html#LIBRASCOPE-L3055 Librascope L3055] data processor for 473L system
* [http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/scienceservice/052125.htm Air Force 473L global communications system]
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