Richard S. Perkin
1906 - 1969
Richard S. Perkin had an early interest in astronomy, making his own telescopes by age 11 and grinding and polishing lenses by age 13. He dropped out of college after a year studying chemical engineering and began work on Wall Street as a banker. In the early 1930s, Perkin met Charles Elmer, who was delivering a lecture on astronomy at the Brooklyn Institute. The two men decided to start a precision optics business in 1937. The firm was called Perkin-Elmer.
The company began its manufacturing operations in Jersey City. The firm had many customers during World War II when German optical instruments could not be imported. In 1942 Perkin-Elmer became the first optical instruments company to win a Navy “E for excellence” rating. The firm sold cameras, periscopes, range finders, bombsights, and other optical devices.
After the war, the company introduced infrared spectrometers, gas chromatographs and atomic absorption spectrometers. It continued to design precision optical instruments for astronomy.