Applied Science Corporation of America

Schlumberger building at 20 Wallace Road, Oct. 2019.

Historical Overview

Standing at 20 Wallace Road, directly next to the Princeton Junction Train Station, is a research and development facility. Although long operated by Schlumberger - one of the world's largest oilfield service companies - this Princeton Junction property, for many decades, also contributed to a broad spectrum of internationally-influential technological innovations.

In World War II, Princeton University was involved in the wartime effort, including through a group researching telemetry (useful for military applications, among other things). After the war, the University reduced its focus on telemetry, so a contingent of these researchers formed the Applied Science Corporation of America (ASCOP). From these very early years onward, the group engaged in research and development in the fields of physics and electronics in industrial and military applications - such as solid state circuits, radio equipment for airborne craft, and more.[1]

Around 1950, ASCOP opened what would become their main headquarters at 20 Wallace Road in Princeton Junction.[2] Even at this time, the company had less than two dozen employees, but it would soon grow rapidly. In 1957, a facility in East Windsor - near the intersection of Old Trenton Road and Princeton-Hightstown Road - was built. Other facilities opened over the years as well.[3]

Classified from Feb. 1, 1970 Trenton Evening Times.

In 1959, ASCOP was purchased by Electro-Mechanical Research Inc (EMR). of Sarasota, Florida - itself also a World War II-era company formed by the much-larger Schlumberger.[4] By this point, about 360 people worked for ASCOP, which became EMR's "Photo-Electric" division.[5] ASCOP products by this point had been used in oil and gas pipeline companies, various utilities, industrial machine tool control, computers, and military applications.[6]

In 1960, the successful TIROS satellite - the first successful low-Earth orbital weather satellite - was launched, and contained equipment manufactured by the Princeton Junction plant in cooperation with RCA.[7] The next year, ASCOP was awarded a contract to work on instrumentation of the Air Force's "Dyna-Soar" space-capable plane.[8] In 1972, EMR sensors were used aboard the "Copernicus" astronomical observatory satellite.[9] These are just some examples of the very many endeavors to which ASCOP contributed.

In the many decades since, the facility has furthered understandings in technology and science, as it has done since the very middle of the 20th century.

Applied Science Corp building, 1959.

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Bibliography

EMR ASCOP. (196AD). "EMR Ascop - History and Facilities" pamphlet published by Electro-Mechanical Research, Inc. in the 1960s (exact year unknown). Digital copy available in the digital archives of the Historical Society of West Windsor.
"Expansion Continues." Town Topics. July 9, 1950.
"Applied Science Corp. Buys Site Near Hightstown In Expansion Program Costing Over Million." Trenton Evening Times. February 5, 1957.
"Florida Concern Buys Assets of A.S.C.O.P." Princeton Herald. July 10, 1959.
"Applied Science Corporation." Princeton Herald. February 12, 1960.
EMR ASCOP. (196AD). "EMR Ascop - History and Facilities" pamphlet published by Electro-Mechanical Research, Inc. in the 1960s (exact year unknown). Digital copy available in the digital archives of the Historical Society of West Windsor.
"ASCOP Aided Satellite." Princeton Herald. April 20, 1960.
"ASCOP Participating in Dyna-Soar Work." Princeton Herald. May 26, 1961.
"EMR Sensors Used Aboard 'Copernicus.'" Town Topics. September 14, 1972.