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John A. "Jack" Victoreen (1902-1986) started out as a Cleveland, Ohio based radio and radio parts manufacturer, but apparently did not prosper in that business (Victoreen Radio Co. later became George A. Walker Co.).  Accordingly, the Victoreen Instrument Co. was founded in 1928 to manufacture and market radiation instrumentation.  They provided much of the radiation equipment for the Manhattan Project, and 95% of the instrumentation for the Bikini atomic bomb tests after World War II.  The instrument division would grow to be a major supplier of civil defense radiation survey meters in the 1960's, and a supplier of instruments to every branch of industry and medicine involving radiation.  Victoreen also manufactured components, initially including certain high value resistors and exotic vacuum tubes (valves) needed in the new instruments, but not readily available from then existing sources.  Later, the component line expanded to include a wide variety of items.  Victoreen Corotron high voltage shunt regulator tubes found wide use in nuclear well logging tools for decades, but were discontinued even before Victoreen was broken up and sold.  Remnants of the company are still around including the resistor division now owned by Ohmite.

02-23-07
Last 10-20-10