Call Number:

024

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

31 linear feet (26 boxes)

Preferred Citation:

The Bendix Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Collection 1952-1993, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia Pennsylvania..

Date:

1952-1993 (inclusive) and 1960-1980 (bulk)

Creator:

McGinnis, Patrick F., Moorman, Charles J., Connor, Tom, Foote, Theodore, Danmoth, Don C., Parmater, John Q., Consolidated Vacuum Corporation, and Prime Technology Corporation

Form:

Archival materials

Abstract:

This is an extensive trove of material relating to the creation marketing and maintenance of the Bendix Corporation's flagship analytical instrument, the Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer.

Founded in 1924 by Vincent Bendix to manufacture brake systems by the mid-1950s the Bendix Corporation had branched out into many other areas, one of these being scientific instrumentation. Their flagship product in this area was the Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer and when newer developments resulted in instruments like the quadrupole mass spectrometer, Bendix saw its market share begin to erode. At first Bendix shifted its TOF MS business to a subsidiary, the Consolidated Vacuum Corporation (CVC) , but CVC became an independent entity following Bendix's takeover by Allied Signal in 1983, and in 1992 CVC signed an agreement with Prime Technology, a company begun a Patrick McGinnis, a former Bendix employee, allowing Prime to market the TOF MS technology.

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1061081~S6

The collection is narrowly focused upon a single product, the TOF MS, but within that limitation is quite comprehensive. The material is divided into instruction manuals, technical files (covering such topics as marketing strategies, instrument-specific repair logs, patents and interoffice memos) and schematics and technical drawings.

Organized into 3 series. 1. Bendix and CVC Instrumentation Manuals; 2. Technical Files 3. Schematics and readouts.