The second in a special Alumnus Series on industries that have sprung up around Georgia Tech
by Frank Bigger
FROM A P.O. BOX TO WORLD LEADER IN EIGHT YE/ S that a lack of money could open the golden doors to booming success for a fledgling electronics business, but that's just what happened in the case of Scientific-Atlanta. Manufacturers of instruments to design and test antennas of all types, Scientific-Atlanta has in the ten short years of its life captured 60 per cent of the world market in the field! Its stock, going at $1 per share when the corporation was formed, has since enjoyed one split, paid several handsome dividends, and now brings a healthy $15 a share. The company established new records in sales and profits for the fiscal year ending June 30. It has just moved into a glittering new plant surrounded by 25 acres of prime Northeast Atlanta land. These facilities are valued at approximately $700,000. In the light of these facts, it is difficult to imagine that a mere eight years ago, the firm's treasury was so low that a single needed piece of equipment could not be purchased. Yet, this dismal set of circumstances was to lead ScientificAtlanta to the pinnacle in its field. It is now the acknowledged Free World leader in antenna test equipment and the future looks brilliant. But there were lean days in the past and for the first six months of its life, Scientific-Atlanta had only a post office box to call its home. The company was formed in 1951 by six engineers and department heads working at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The founders were James E. Boyd, then head of the Physics Division at the Experiment Station; Gerald A. Rosselot, then director of the Experiment Station; Robert A. Honor, a research engineer; Vernon R. Widerquist, another research engineer; Charles M. Griffin, then business manager of the Tech Athletic Assn., and R. Lamar Whittle, then head of the electronics laboratory. The founders brought Glen P. Robinson, Jr., a Tech physics graduate, from Oak Ridge National Laboratories where he was performing nuclear experiments, back to
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Atlanta to serve as general manager of the company. Robinson took a post as a research physicist at Tech's Research Station and ran Scientific-Atlanta after regular business hours. The company leased space in the corner of a warehouse on Virginia Ave. and using part time machinists and engineers, did contract development work for military agencies and industry, and performed instrument maintenance service for schools and hospitals in the Atlanta area. In 1953 Robinson left his post with Tech to devote all of his time to company business. What appeared to be a gloomy situation developed for the young company late in 1954. The firm desperately needed an automatic antenna pattern recorder. This is a device to measure performance characteristics of all types of antennas. There was only one such machine on the market and Scientific-Atlanta simply did not have the money to buy it. Robinson and his staff decided to attempt building a pattern recorder on their own. This was a wise move indeed. Before the machine was developed, Convair Aircraft and American Machine and Foundry Co. heard about it and sent representatives to Atlanta to examine the project. Convair ordered two of the devices and American Machine placed an order for one. While on a trip to deliver one of the recorders, Robinson visited 10 electronic companies including Western Electric, Westinghouse, General Electric, and the ITE Circuit Breaker Company, to demonstrate the instrument. Within six months Scientific-Atlanta had sold pattern recorders to all 10 of the companies. Robinson, who is now president of Scientific-Atlanta, said this development was a confidence-builder for members of the firm and served to prove that Scientific-Atlanta had a good future. With business expanding, the outfit purchased two acres of land on Piedmont Road and constructed a plant which TECH ALUMNUS