The Richardson
Grating Laboratory was established in 1947 by Bausch & Lomb, in Rochester, New York,
when a ruling engine built by Albert Michelson was installed, and a second engine was
ordered from David Mann. The first ruled master gratings of spectroscopic quality were
produced in 1949. During this period, a replication process was developed, which made
possible the production of optically equivalent gratings at reasonable cost. As a result
of these parallel developments in grating ruling and grating replication, the diffraction
grating soon became available in commercial quantities and over time replaced the prism as
the dispersing element of choice in laboratory instruments.
Initially, the Laboratory supplied gratings to Bausch & Lomb's Scientific Instrument
Division (now Spectronic Instruments, Inc.). Soon afterward, though, the Laboratory began
to provide gratings to other commercial manufacturers of spectroscopic instrumentation, as
well as to scientific researchers and astronomers throughout the world.
The Richardson Grating Laboratory has grown over the last fifty years to become a world
leader in the design and manufacture of diffraction gratings. Our catalog contains
hundreds of different ruled and holographic master gratings from which replicas in any
quantity can be made. Our three interferometrically-controlled ruling engines and two
holographic recording chambers produce dozens of new master gratings each year, most
custom-designed for specific customer applications. Our replication facility produces tens
of thousands of gratings each year, from single quantities to several thousands, in sizes
from a few millimeters square to 320 mm x 420 mm, for use in the far ultraviolet through
the visible and into the infrared. Our testing and characterization equipment is
specifically designed to measure grating efficiency, coating properties, wavefront
distortion, scattered light intensity, etc. from which we have collected one of the
largest sets of grating test data in the world.
In 1985, the Laboratory was acquired by Milton Roy Company, under whose direction the
business continued to grow. In 1997, the Laboratory and its parent, Spectronic
Instruments, were purchased by Thermo Optek Corporation. Throughout these changes in
ownership, the Laboratory has maintained its focus on technical leadership and service to
its customers.
We are proud to build upon the heritage of technical excellence and customer service that
began over fifty years ago with Dr. George Harrison, Dr. Erwin Loewen, David Richardson,
and Robert Wiley, pioneers in the field of grating design, manufacture, testing and
application. We remain committed to keeping the traditions they established.
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