Librascope was a

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

, division of General Precision, Inc. (GPI). It was founded in 1937 by Lewis W. Imm to build and operate theater equipment, and acquired by General Precision in 1941. During World War II it worked on improving aircraft load balancing. Later, Librascope became a manufacturer of early digital computers sold in both the business and defense markets. It hired

Stan Frankel Stanley Phillips Frankel (1919 – May, 1978) was an American computer scientist. He worked in the Manhattan Project and developed various computers as a consultant. Early life He was born in Los Angeles, attended graduate school at the Univers ...

, a

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

veteran and early

ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one packa ...

programmer, to design the

LGP-30 The LGP-30, standing for Librascope General Purpose and then Librascope General Precision, was an early off-the-shelf computer. It was manufactured by the Librascope company of Glendale, California (a division of General Precision Inc.), and so ...

desktop computer in 1956. In 1964 Librascope's Avionic Equipment Division at San Marcos has been shifted to the Aerospace Group, GPI as the West Coast facility of the Kearfott Division. Librascope was eventually purchased by

Singer Corporation Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Ma ...

and moved into the manufacture of marine systems and land-based C3 (Command, Control, Communication) systems for the international defense industry. The company specialized in fire control systems for torpedoes, though they continued to work on a variety of other smaller military contracts through the 1970s. After Singer was taken over by

corporate raid In business, a corporate raid is the process of buying a large stake in a corporation and then using shareholder voting rights to require the company to undertake novel measures designed to increase the share value, generally in opposition to t ...

Paul Bilzerian Paul Alec Bilzerian ( hy, Փօլ Պիլզերեան, born 1950) is an American businessman and corporate takeover specialist. Education and family Bilzerian was born in Miami, Florida but grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts in an Armenian America ...

, the company was sold to

Loral Space & Communications Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a Delaware-domiciled satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and syste ...

in 1992. The division was eventually sold to

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and was eventually absorbed into the Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, but is now called Lockheed Martin NE&SS—Undersea Systems.

Computers

* LGP-21
Librascope AN/ASN-24
general purpose Airborne/Aerospace Computer Set (1958), after modification used in: **

Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

guidance computer (Librascope-3) **

Lockheed C-141A Starlifter The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter is a retired military strategic airlifter that served with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), its successor organization the Military Airlift Command (MAC), and finally the Air Mobility Command (AMC) of the ...

and C-130E Hercules - Digital Navigation Computer (System 605A), AN/ASN-24(V) **

Atlas-Centaur The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. Launches were conducted from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. Early development Convair, ...

Navigation Computer (GPK-33) **Digital Camera-Control System - aerial-reconnaissance camera system, AN/ASN-24(XY-1)
Librascope C141
airborne navigation computer

general purpose aerospace computer (1962)

aircraft and missile guidance computer

general purpose rugged computer (1962), portable

data processor for 473L system

References

External links

Librascope Memories
over 60 years of history, including 293 Librazette newsletters, photos, product literature, and company videos.

global communications system {{compu-company-stub 1937 establishments in California 1992 disestablishments in California American companies disestablished in 1992 American companies established in 1937 Companies based in Glendale, California Computer companies established in 1937 Computer companies disestablished in 1992 Defunct computer companies of the United States Technology companies established in 1937 Technology companies disestablished in 1992