Double Celebrations for Underwater Companies

The companies Teledyne Benthos and Teledyne Webb Research, USA, celebrated their 50th and 30th anniversaries respectively last week at their North Falmouth facility. Nearly 400 people attended to celebrate the milestones, including employees and their families, customers, vendors and state and local officials. The gala included opening addresses by group general manager Thomas Altshuler, followed by speeches from Doug Webb, the founder of Webb Research, and Samuel Raymond, the founder of Teledyne Benthos.

Special guest speakers included Jim Davis, senior vice president and segment general manager of Teledyne Instruments, Therese Murray, Senate president of the Massachusetts State Senate, and Falmouth Selectman, Mary Pat Flynn.

Samuel O. Raymond started Benthos from his barn in Falmouth in 1962. The company was one of the first to supply commercial tools for oceanographic research. Benthos developed the underwater camera that took some of the first images of the wreck of the Titanic. The company’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were featured in James Cameron’s film, 'The Abyss', and their underwater pingers are on the black boxes of commercial airlines worldwide. Raymond was an ingenious inventor. The first email sent to the surface from a submarine travelling at speed and depth used the company’s acoustic modem technology. Benthos was acquired by Teledyne Technologies, Inc. of Thousand Oaks, California in 2006 as the second in a series of marine-related acquisitions.

Webb Research, founded by Douglas C. Webb in 1982 to provide government and academic labs with oceanographic research equipment, specialises in three areas of ocean instrumentation: buoyancy driven profiling floats, autonomous underwater gliders and moored underwater sound sources. Mr Webb quipped that more than 7,000 profilers have changed the ocean from being hopelessly under-sampled to badly under-sampled. Webb, who still works at the company as senior director of technology, added that they were just getting started.

Webb Research became a member of the Teledyne Technologies group of companies in 2008. Benthos and Webb Research have made significant contributions to oceanographic research and science and are major employers in the local region, according to Thomas W. Altshuler, vice president and group general manager. Conveying the achievements of the past 50 years of Benthos’s history, Altshuler expects that the next half century is looking very bright.

Equipment from both companies along with products from two other Teledyne Benthos group companies, Teledyne Gavia and Teledyne TapTone, were also on display demonstrating the group's vast range of products. Teledyne Gavia is the latest addition to the Teledyne group of marine based companies, which serve as leading suppliers of undersea systems for military, scientific and commercial applications around the world.­­­­