Spinco Historical Collection

The Spinco Division of Beckman Coulter, Incorporated is an American manufacturer of scientific and medical instruments. The firm’s origins date back to 1934 when Edward G. Pickels, then a physics doctoral student at the University of Virginia, joined the staff of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. At the Rockefeller Foundation, Pickels completed his doctorate (which was awarded to him in 1935) and worked with Johannes H. Bauer, a scientist with the foundation’s International Health Division. With Bauer, Pickels helped design and build an air driven optical ultracentrifuge for less than $1,000. This machine effectively duplicated the work of the far more expensive Svedberg ultracentrifuge, an oil driven ultracentrifuge designed by Nobel laureate Theodor Svedberg.

Pickels left the Rockefeller Foundation in 1946 to found his own company. That same year, with four partners, he established Specialized Instruments Corporation. Known by its acronym “Spinco”, the new firm was initially based in San Carlos, California. Shortly after its founding, Spinco built its first ultracentrifuge, designated as the Model E, which it sold to the University of California, Berkeley. Cal Berkeley was so impressed with this machine that it promptly ordered four more of them. Spinco hired additional personnel to fill incoming orders and the firm’s products soon acquired an excellent reputation.

The late 1940s and early 1950s were a period of growth for Spinco. The firm outgrew its original shop and moved to a larger facility in Belmont, California in 1947. Spinco’s product line expanded during this time period. In 1947, the firm introduced the Model L Preparative Ultracentrifuge, which was designed to prepare samples of materials for subsequent analysis by the larger Model E. Spinco also started to diversify its product line by building other types of instruments during this time, introducing the Model H Electrophoresis-Diffusion Instrument (1953) and the Model R Paper Electrophoresis System (1954.)

In 1955, Spinco was acquired by Beckman Instruments, Incorporated, a leading American scientific instruments manufacturer founded by scientist and inventor Arnold O. Beckman. Now known as Beckman Instruments, Incorporated’s Spinco Division, it continued to grow and became an important and highly profitable part of its new parent company. The firm continued to diversify its product line with new types of instruments during the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Model MS and Model 120 Amino Acid Analyzers (1958). It also continued expand and develop its well regarded line of centrifuges, introducing the Model K (1956) and Model L2-50 (1960). Also during this time period, Spinco outgrew its Belmont facility and moved into a new division headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Beckman Instruments, under the leadership of president William Ballhaus, repositioned itself in the marketplace as a manufacturer of biomedical instruments. Spinco’s product line fit well within this new business strategy and played a key role in making it a successful one. Spinco continued to develop its line of centrifuges, introducing the Model L3-40 Ultracentrifuge (1966) and Model L5-40 Preparative Ultracentrifuge (1972). Spinco also continued to add innovative new instruments to its diversifying product line, including the Model 890 Protein-Peptide Sequencer (1969) and the System AA Data System (1975).

The 1980s and 1990s were an eventful time for Beckman Instruments, Incorporated and its Spinco Division. In 1981, Beckman Instruments was purchased by pharmaceuticals manufacturer SmithKline Corporation and the two companies merged in 1982 to form SmithKline Beckman Corporation. But this corporate marriage was short lived and ended in 1988 when SmithKline spun off Beckman Instruments, which reemerged as an independent, publically traded concern the following year. In 1997, Beckman Instruments purchased Coulter Corporation, a well-known manufacturer of blood and cell analysis instruments. The two firms subsequently merged and the new company was named Beckman Coulter, Incorporated in 1998.

Against the backdrop of the structural changes occurring at its parent company during 1980s and 1990s, Spinco remained a key part of the Beckman concern. It continuously developed and updated its existing product line, which now included centrifuges, electrophoresis equipment, amino acid analyzers, protein peptide sequencers, and data systems, introducing items such as the Optima L Ultracentrifuge (1989) and the Geneline Electrophoresis System (1990). Spinco also continued to add innovative new instruments to its product lineup, including the System 1 DNA Synthesizer (1985).

The Spinco Division of Beckman Coulter, Incorporated closed its Palo Alto, California facility in 2008. That same year, production of Spinco’s centrifuge line was relocated to a facility in Indianapolis, Indiana and the rest of its product lines were discontinued. Beckman Coulter and its Spinco Division were acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2013. Beckman Coulter, Incorporated is presently an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Danaher Corporation.

Sources

Spinco Historical Collection, Chemical Heritage Foundation Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.