Hazeltine Corporation was a defense electronics company which is now part of

BAE Systems Inc. BAE Systems Inc. (formerly BAE Systems North America) is an American subsidiary of British defense, security, and aerospace company BAE Systems plc. The American subsidiary operates under a Special Security Agreement which allows it to work o ...

History

1924–1986

The company was founded in 1924 by investors to exploit the

Neutrodyne The Neutrodyne radio receiver, invented in 1922 by Louis Hazeltine, was a particular type of tuned radio frequency (TRF) receiver, in which the instability-causing inter-electrode capacitance of the triode RF tubes is cancelled out or "neutrali ...

patent of Dr. Louis Alan Hazeltine. Headquartered in Greenlawn,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, since 1955, it had facilities in several other locations in Long Island, including its Wheeler Laboratories facility in

Smithtown, New York Smithtown is a town in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. The population was 116,296 at the 2020 Census. The census-designated place (CDP) of Smithtown lies within the tow ...

, manufacturing plants in Riverhead and Little Neck, NY, and a division in

Braintree, Massachusetts Braintree (), officially the Town of Braintree, is a municipality in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Although officially known as a towBraintree is a city, with a mayor-council government, mayor-council form of government, and i ...

. The company originally concentrated on the design of electronic circuits and the licensing of patents. Innovations in radio, monochrome and later color television components allowed the company to grow. One particularly lucrative design was the

Automatic Gain Control Automatic gain control (AGC) is a closed-loop feedback regulating circuit in an amplifier or chain of amplifiers, the purpose of which is to maintain a suitable signal amplitude at its output, despite variation of the signal amplitude at the inpu ...

circuit. This was such a useful feature that almost every AM radio made used this feature, by license from Hazeltine, from about 1930 until the patent expired. Hazeltine Corporation also developed and licensed many of the basic concepts of the

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

color television system. From 1955 to 1959 the president of the Hazeltine Company was

Philip La Follette Philip Fox La Follette (May 8, 1897August 18, 1965) was an American politician. He was the List of Governors of Wisconsin, 27th and List of Governors of Wisconsin, 29th Governor of Wisconsin, as well as one of the founders of the Wisconsin Progre ...

, former three-term governor of Wisconsin and son of "Fighting Bob" La Follette, who campaigned for president in 1924 as the Progressive Party candidate. The company flourished into the 1980s as a United States Federal

defense contractor The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and serv ...

with particular success as a designer and manufacturer of "

Identification Friend or Foe Identification, friend or foe (IFF) is an identification system designed for command and control. It uses a transponder that listens for an ''interrogation'' signal and then sends a ''response'' that identifies the broadcaster. IFF systems usual ...

" (IFF) military detection and identification systems. Michael Holley Computer 1978 NWCN

During the 1970s, as an outgrowth of its defense work, Hazeltine Corp. developed the Hazeltine Terminal, an early

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

smart terminal. Several improved models followed, including the popular

Hazeltine 1500 The Hazeltine 1500 was a popular smart terminal introduced by Hazeltine Corporation in April 1977 at a price of . Using a microprocessor and semiconductor random access memory, it implemented the basic features of the earlier Hazeltine 2000 in ...

, which found use in the emerging

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

market in the late 1970s. The company eventually sold the terminal line to a short-lived third party called Esprit, which was managed by former Hazeltine employees. Hazeltine Corporation's terminal division was spun off into

Esprit Systems Esprit Systems Inc. was a vendor of computer terminal products created as a spin-off from Hazeltine Corporation's terminal division in January 1983. The name refers to the Hazeltine Esprit terminal, which division management felt the parent compan ...

in January 1983. The name of the spin-off refers to the

Hazeltine Esprit Hazeltine may refer to: People * Abner Hazeltine (1793–1879), American politician * Alice Isabel Hazeltine (1878–1959), American librarian, editor, and writer * David Hazeltine (born 1958), American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educat ...

terminal, which division management felt Hazeltine was not properly marketing.

1986–present

Hazeltine was acquired by the

Emerson Electric Company Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The ''Fortune'' 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets.

in 1986. In 1990, Emerson spun off its Government and Defense Group, including Hazeltine, to form ESCO Electronics Corporation. GEC-Marconi Hazeltine wordmark

In 1996, Hazeltine was acquired from ESCO by GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems Corp., a US subsidiary of

The General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

, and renamed GEC-Marconi Hazeltine. ESCO was represented by investment banking firm Quarterdeck Investment Partners, Inc. in a deal which valued Hazeltine at $110 million. With the 1999 merger of GEC-Marconi and

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

to form

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

, GEC-Marconi Hazeltine was renamed BAE Systems Advanced Systems. In 2002, it was renamed BAE Systems CNIR (Communication, Navigation, Identification and Reconnaissance). In a 2007 reorganization, the division was folded into

BAE Systems Electronics and Integrated Solutions BAE Systems Electronic Systems (ES) is one of three operating groups of BAE Systems Inc., the North American subsidiary of the British global defence contractor BAE Systems PLC. History BAE Systems acquired Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronic S ...

and is currently known as BAE Systems Sensor Systems.

References

External links

{{Commons category * tp://ftp.cs.utk.edu/pub/shuford/terminal/hazeltine_news.txt Richard S. Shuford information on Hazeltine terminalsbr>Description of Hazeltine 2000 video terminal, ca. 1972, at Columbia UniversityHazeltine 2000 photo
*Molnar, Mike, ''Hazeltine, the Neutrodyne and the Hazeltine Corporation'',

The AWA Review The Antique Wireless Association (AWA) is chartered as a non-profit educational organization in New York State and is an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation based in Bloomfield, New York. It was originally established in 1952 by Bruce Kelley, Geor ...

(Vol. 26, 2013). Defunct computer hardware companies Avionics companies Defunct companies based in New York (state) History of radio 1924 establishments in New York (state) 1986 disestablishments in New York (state) 1986 mergers and acquisitions 1996 mergers and acquisitions 2007 mergers and acquisitions Computer companies established in 1924 Defunct computer companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1924 Electronics companies of the United States Manufacturing companies established in 1924 Manufacturing companies of the United States Defense companies of the United States