J&L Metrology, Springfield VT, USA

The Jones and Lamson legacy of making optical comparators allows users to detect deviations as small as the width of a hair in the gauged parts the companies manufacture. This level of preciseness seems like a product of the computer age, but J & L has been making precision products for 165 years.
Explained simply, an optical comparator requires a light source, a mirror, a magnifying lens and viewing screen. The part to be inspected can be magnified over 200 times, making the smallest flaw detectable. Today's technology may have hanged the components, but the idea is the same as it has been for years.
In 1980 the company that owned J&L split it into the lathe division and the optical comparator division, called J&L Metrology, and moved J&L Metrology to South Carolina. The company was not successful there, having left most of its highly skilled workers back in Springfield. Soon after, Fellows Gear Shaper closed a hundred-year circle and bought Jones & Lamson and returned the Metrology division back to Springfield with great success. Our company operates with subdivisions Vermont Precision, Vermont Precision Machine Services, and Optodynetics.
Today, J & L is privately owned and uses the latest technology in its comparators, including fiber optic edge detectors, CNC capabilities, and screens up to 50 inches in diameter. We still survive on very old fashioned ingredients of quality and durability which have played an important role in our success.