July 1944 QST
 Table
of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL
for info). All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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I was first introduced to the Simpson 260
volt-ohmmeter (VOM) in the radar shop where I was assigned in the USAF. Here is
the modern version of that classic, the
Simpson 260-8 VOM; it looks a lot like the original. Here is an
advertisement that I scanned out of my copy of the July 1944 QST magazine.
It highlights the precision to which its meter movement pivots are manufactured.
"While Simpson Electric Company, chartered in 1934, is a firm with a
distinguished past, it is just as importantly an organization with a dynamic present
and a definite future." There is an entire website dedicated to the history of the
Simpson 260. The famous 260 Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter put Simpson
on the map and cemented a reputation for quality that still defines Simpson in the
marketplace today." You can still buy a brand new
Simpson 260
(-8) from Amazon - and it isn't cheap - or grab a vintage
Simpson Model 260 on eBay for under $100.
Simpson Electric Company Advertisement
 This unretouched photomicrograph, approximately
50 times actual size, shows pretty clearly what we mean by the value of experience,
when it comes to the making of electrical instruments and testing equipment.
Pivots play in important part in determining an instrument's life and accuracy.
In the Simpson-made pivot above, you have what is truly a masterpiece of its kind
... perfect in contour ... all surfaces brilliantly polished to prevent rusting
... rounded end properly correlated with radius of jewel to minimize friction and
withstand vibration and shock .. heat-treated for an unusual combination of strength
and hardness.
The obvious explanation for this excellence rests in the fact that Simpson employs
some processes others do not, and safeguards every step of manufacture by the finest
and most complete control modern science can provide. But in the final analysis,
it is only Simpson's long experience which makes such a pivot possible.
That experience reaches back more than 30 years. From it has come new shortcuts
in manufacture, new refinements in design, which today permits Simpson to make "instruments
that stay accurate" in greater volume than ever before. From this long specialization
has come too a sound basis for further advance in your postwar Simpson Instruments
you will see still more forcefully the value of this experience.
Posted June 2, 2023
(updated from original
post on 1/16/2012)
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