Perkin-Elmer Company
1937-present
Perkin-Elmer was founded by Richard S. Perkin and Charles W. Elmer on April 19, 1937, as an optics design and consulting business operating out of a small Manhattan office. Perkin-Elmer began fabricating precision optical components in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1938.
In 1944 the firm introduced its first commercial infrared spectrophotometer, the Model 12 IR Spectrometer. The company began to sell America's first commercial gas chromatograph, the Model 154, in May 1955. During the late 1950s Perkin-Elmer introduced the first commercial double-beam IR instrument, beginning low-cost IR analysis and concomitantly established integrated manufacturing facilities in West Germany and the United Kingdom and became the first scientific instrumentation firm to move into international markets.
In the 1970s, the company introduced a line of computerized instrumentation, including its model 460 atomic absorbtion (AA) spectrophotometer along with a microcomputer.
In the early 1990s, Perkin-Elmer entered the field of biotechnology by forming a strategic alliance with Hoffmann-La Roche to advance the enormous potential of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR ) technology, developed by Cetus, and commercialized by Perkin-Elmer. Since 1999 the Life Sciences and analytical instruments segments have been expanded through the acquisitions of the Analytical Instruments business from PE Corp, in 1999, NEN Life Sciences in 2000 and Packard BioScience Company in 2001.