While Simpson Electric Company, chartered in 1934, is a firm with a distinguished past, it is just as importantly an organization with a dynamic present and a definite future. The famous 260 Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter put Simpson on the map and cemented a reputation for quality that still defines Simpson in the marketplace today. Yet, the Simpson Electric story is about more than one product. It is about people, who with Ray Simpson, started the instrument industry, building sensitive electrical products that perform reliably in tough, industrial conditions to a diversified line of digital and analog panel meters and test instrumentation products...

CHARLES LINDBERGH AND "THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS"

Simpson Electric’s prominence in the panel and test instrument industry dates back to 1927, when our founder, Ray Simpson, built the indicating mechanism for the earth inductor compass that Charles Lindbergh relied upon when he flew “The Spirit of St. Louis” on the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. For thirty-three hours, Lindbergh’s life and success of his historic flight depended largely on this navigational instrument, while the world awaited his arrival in Paris.  

This honor was only the beginning of Simpson’s ground-breaking innovations for our customers. The first of many patented designs from Simpson featured a full bridge type meter movement with soft iron pole pieces which were anchored, providing a rigid frame to keep the movement in proper alignment. 

MORE SIMPSON FIRSTS

Other Simpson “firsts” indicative of continued leadership and quality in the instrument industry include:

• First commercially-practical core meter movement
• First to use split coil frames for controlled damping under special applications
• First to use non-shatter glass in instruments 
• First to put a zero adjust on lower-cost high-grade instruments 
• First Lucite illuminated meter face providing better scale visibility 
• First shielded line of small portable instruments that met requirements for checking areas where strong magnetic fields exist 
• First commercially-practical two-inch wattmeter in America
• First compact “all purpose” volt-ohm-milliammeter, the “260," that thousands of military personnel used during World War II

Ray Simpson always had an affinity for the Lac du Flambeau area in Wisconsin and held a special interest in the Chippewa Indian residents.  In 1946, Simpson purchased the old school in Lac du Flambeau and converted it into the Simpson Electric molding plant. 

P.O. Box 99
520 Simpson Avenue
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538-0099
Phone: (715) 588-3311
Fax: (715) 588-3326