In a part of the upstairs office space in the new building around 1976 a new company named “Standard Instrumentation, Inc” (SI) was created as the first wholly owned diversification attempt. A local physicist, Allen White, whose dad was the Island Creek Coal Company’s lab management had just graduated from college and wanted to bring more sophisticated electronic controls to coal testing apparatus and equipment which until then had relied on strictly mechanical and electrical controls.
Allen persuaded Gladys and Troy to finance an operation to convert several common pieces of lab equipment to electronic control and offer them for sale into the industry. Consequently, Standard Instrumentation produced a Gieseler plastometer, an Aubert-Arnu dilatometer apparatus, a Sole Heated Oven, an Ash Fusion Oven, Carbolite Ash Ovens and even a computer system to provide an integrated lab operation (Nova Coal) for a short proximate lab. After a few years Allen left the company to start his own business. In October 1980 Ray Daniels replaced White and became President of Standard Instrumentation. That same year SI offered plasticity and dilation round robin testing program to labs across the world. It was the first of its kind in offering “known coals” to provide timely and representative reference material to the metallurgical coal producers and steel makers.
Of note is the fact that Standard Instrumentation became the West Virginia’s Export Company of the Year,1981 “for its sales to foreign countries throughout the world” and was called to Washington to receive the award from Senator Robert Byrd. A picture of the event is shown under Article U of the Appendix.
In 1991, Std Labs sold its interest in Standard Instrumentation to Preiser Minco and Ray Daniels became the Director – Quality Assurance and shortly thereafter the Charleston Lab Manager.
Standard Instrumentation marketing literature can be found in the Appendix under Article I.