Alpha Electronics EDM (Benchmark)
date: label: date made
content: 1980
name: label: maker
content: Alpha Electronics
label: maker
content: Benchmark
notes: label: Description
content: This is a prototype of a short-range infrared electronic distance measuring instrument with a remote control keyboard that allowed surveyors "to rapidly enter data (for atmospheric corrections, horizontal reduction, etc.) and make distance shots without touching the critical alignment of theodolite and target." It used a gallium-arsenide light-emitting diode, weighed under 4 lbs, and had a range of 1 mile with an accuracy of 0.02 feet ±2 ppm. The structural components were made of "space age materials" (actually, a G.E. plastic known as Menlon), and were apparently relatively inexpensive to produce. It is marked "Alpha Electronics Denver, Colorado serial no 03001 Made in U.S.A." It was made in 1980.
label: Description
content: This example came from John I. Shipp, a physicist who played a major role in the design of the Ranger and Beetle EDMs. It is the first unit manufactured by Alpha Electronics, a firm that Shipp and others established in the mid-1970s. Shipp withdrew from Alpha Electronics in mid-1980, and established Benchmark in Tullahoma, Tennessee. The edm, now known as the Surveyor, was on the market by the summer of 1981. Surveyor I-X had a range of 1 km and cost $2,995. Surveyor II-X had a range of 2 km and cost $3,495. Several thousand of these instruments were eventually sold in the United States. John Shipp and Charlie Rose received a design patent (#268,910) for the Surveyor on May 10, 1983, and assigned it to Benchmark.
label: Description
content: Ref: Benchmark brochures for <i>Surveyor I. Remote Control Electronic Distance Meter</i> and <i>Surveyor I with Telecommand</i>.
label: Description
content: Advertisement in <i>P.O.B.</i> (June-July 1981): 43.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado, Denver
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: P.O.B.
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: John I. Shipp
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1996.0187.01
label: accession number
content: 1996.0187
label: catalog number
content: 1996.0187.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: edm
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 12 1/2 in x 8 in; 25.4 cm x 31.75 cm x 20.32 cm