By 1947, the Hastings Instrument Company could count many successful projects. Their list of products included the following:
- Raydist Navigation System
- Magnetic Switch and Coil
- Maximum Recording Accelerometer
- Visibility Meter
While the list of projects was impressive, the company wanted to grow their profits further. Charles Hastings decided to look at his business model and make some changes. The company needed to raise capital for further development in order to become a sizeable company. Growth would give the company the ability to attract and close larger contracts. To do this, Hastings decided to incorporate the business and offer 3500 shares of stock. The company charter was received from the Commonwealth of Virginia on Valentine’s Day 1947.
After several sales pitches and demonstrations, Hastings received two large contracts for Raydist. Along with these two contracts, the company was busy building Air-Meters for commercial sales. Before selling the Air-Meters, the instruments needed to be calibrated. In those early days, calibration was done by driving down the road holding a probe out the window while someone in the passenger seat held the Air-Meter. When the car reached 5, 10, 15 etc… mph the passenger would make a note on the blank dial face and then return to the house where they would neatly letter the dial face.
During this period of growth, Hastings realized that it was time to find a new location for the business. By now, there were 17 people working elbow-to-elbow at the Hastings’ home and that could not continue. The company settled on temporary location in an old brick distributorship building that had a leaky roof and flooded at spring tides, but it was at the price they could afford.
By the spring of 1948, several Raydist contracts were in the works. Air-Meters continued to sell very well, and several instruments were about to be introduced. That same year, the Hastings Company also moved into a more permanent building for its now 75 employees, which would grow to 118 by 1950. To secure the company and continue to make profits, Hastings realized he needed to produce a Raydist for commercial use. The company achieved this goal in 1950 with a sale to the Norfolk Corps of Engineers for hydrographic surveys and channel dredging.
By 1950, the line of Hastings Instruments increased to the following:
- Air-Meter
- Precision Air-Meter (for higher ranges and more accurate readings)
- Maximum Indicating Accelerometer
- Voltage-regulated Power Supply
- Electronic Standard Cell
- Vacuum Gauge
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n addition to the list of commercial instruments above, Hastings developed specialized instruments for specific customers. For example: the “Ventimeter” was used by the army to measure ventilation in clothing to keep wearers comfortable under extreme weather conditions. The Hastings Company was now growing fast and generating handsome profits for its stakeholders.
For more information on Teledyne Hastings be sure to visit our website www.teledyne-hi.com or contact us
Information for this blog was derived from “The Story of Hastings-Raydist” book by Carol Hastings Sanders 1979
In September 1944, the Hastings Instrument Company started to take shape. For quite some time, Charles & Mary conducted the business out of their home. They received their first order in December from the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia for $800. The order was for a rotary magnetic switch for commutating electrical circuits. 
Business continued to grow. Seventeen employees would arrive at the Hastings home around 7pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to work on their electronic projects (see image on right). During the day, Mary would take care of miscellaneous projects. On one occasion, Mary agreed to have some Raydist cabinets painted by the time Charles came home. Unfortunately, the air compressor was out of air so Mary came up with another plan. She would take the car to the nearby service station and put as much air in the tires as she could without them bursting. She would then drive back home, attach her paint sprayer to the tires, and paint the Raydist cabinets 
until her tires were almost flat. She did this several times to complete the project before Charles came home. The business activities took a toll on the Hastings home. The roof leaked and needed to be replaced from all the antennas mounted to it (see image on left), the driveway needed to be replaced from the damage of delivery trucks, Mary’s oven smelled like paint which caused some challenges when meal time came.
In January 1946, Hastings received their first order for a Raydist. The Air Material Command at Wright Field in Cleveland Ohio wanted a single-dimensional Raydist system to use during aerial photography and mapping. The final product was hand-delivered by Charles himself in October. (see image on right and below)
Ever wonder where the idea or dream of Hastings originated? Well as part 1 of our anniversary year blog posts, we thought this would be a good place to start. Charles Hastings at the age of 10 was bitten by the radio bug and began to build and experiment with radio gear. In 1930, at the age of 16, Charles Hastings found an opportunity to fund his experiments by fixing other people’s radios. Many families had radios at this point, but they were very unreliable and frequently needed minor repairs. Charles would fix radios to earn money to buy parts for his own experiments.
Last month, we passed our ISO 9001 surveillance audit. It has been over twenty years since we first obtained ISO and we wanted to take a step back and review some significant accomplishments. 