In 1945, at the dawn of the Atomic Age, three scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology saw the need for a high technology instrument company to support the emerging industry created by this new technology. These three men, Dr. Frank Chesley, Dr. Demetrius Jelatis, and Dr. Gordon Lee, pioneered early development of safer methods for handling hazardous and toxic products produced by this industry. So Central Research Laboratories was born.Early mechanisms for handling materials in containment were awkward (usually overhead-mounted devices.) Argonne National Laboratory commissioned CRL to develop a telemanipulator that could be mounted through the vertical face of the containment wall. The result was the Model 8 manipulator, many of which are in use throughout the world today. Subsequent development and customer requirements have led to 20 different models of telemanipulator with a wide range of capacities and configurations.
