Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1958-07-31
Employs 12O Workers
Busting New Firm Here
| Makes Parts for Missiles

Instead of blowing hair dry witt
heat, this drier "wrings" hair by
a acknowledging action. 1t is, II
effect, a tiny ACKNOWLEDGING
unit.
Like Mobilav, the plastic hail
drier was pioneered by VITA en-
gineers. A completed model will
be displayed at the Brussels
World Fair, and representatives
from France and Western Ger
many already have shown in
terest in it.
Both the drier and MObilav
probably will be distributed
to users on a lease basis,
since manufacturing costs
are expected to be too high
for the small businessman.
Each appliance would carry
an option to buy after three
years.
Another non-military item be
ing developed at VITA is g
transformed stethescope. II
practicable, this scope would lei
doctors tune in" on just the
heart sounds they want to study
shutting off at will noise from
other nearby organs.
Fascinating as these projects
may be, the real business OF
VITA today is defense.
They don't m a Ike missiles;
rather VITA technicians conduct
what they call a missile support
program.
When founders of VITA broke
away from the. Applied Physics
Laboratory at Johns Hopkins
University, they decided to go
into the unglamorous business of
designing the button which some
space jockey must push in order
to make missile blast off.
Out of this in five years has
grown a whole related support
field that keeps VITA designing
and turning out dollys used to
move missiles; huge cans in
which to store and move missile
parts; can-openers to insert and
withdraw parts from these cans
pumps. electrical and electronio
test equipment and many other
parts.
VITA is stated almost eX
clusively by employees from
Rockville, Chevy Chase and Sill
yer Spring. VITA management
caters to its highly.skilled work
force with various company bene
fit plans that include a profit
sharing retirement plan. PROBES
sional employees get three weeks
vacation, non-professionals two
weeks.
And whoever designed the
buildings must have loved coffee
for at nearly every turn there il
a hot plate with a glass pot full
of simmering brew. Whenever he
needs a break, a VITA employed
walks over gets a cup of coffee
AT the same time, he puts {
check against his name on Z
chart and at the end of the month
he pays his share for the service
The dominant color of the
two buildings is a dim, rest
full green, not unlike the
walls of modern hospital OPP
Grating rooms. Even all of
the heavy machinery in the
plant is painted green.
Head of this bustling industr,
is Julian II. Ray, president, whC
is aided by Eugene S. Culver
vice president; Bernard ]. Gal
lagher, an attorney, who is the
secretary.treasurer; Harold A
Timken. assistant secretary. anC
Wendell c. Swenson, business ad
ministrator and accountant.
These men are engineers
reputed in their fields. The com
pany's success so far - and the,
have huge backlog of work =
lies in its ability to take an ide;
all the way through its produc
ton phases to a finished piec'
of hardware that works, accord
ing to Thinker, eX.Navy torped'
specialist.
There is hardly missile in tn
U. S. arsenal today that won't b
helped off the ground by SOM
part turned out by WTA's shops
or from its drawing boards.