Southwestern Industries, Inc. manufactured the Trav-A-Dial measurement system that was a predecessor to digital readouts (DROs).

Information Sources

• The label on the back of a Trav-A-Dial reads, "Southwestern Industries, Inc. / 5880 Centinela Ave. / Los Angeles Calif. 90045"
• From a page on the southwesternindustries.com website.

  Founded in 1951 by former Lockheed engineer Dr. Fred Jenks, SWI was originally located in a facility on the border between the present-day cities of Culver City and Inglewood, CA. Established as a job shop, the company's primary focus was the development and manufacture of mechanically actuated electrical pressure switches to control fuel flow for Atlas and Delta missiles as well as actuators for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.

  The Trav-A-Dial
  Dr. Jenks bought the design rights to the Trav-A-Dial in 1962. Although the idea behind the design was right, the original version of the product did not meet expectations. In order to address this issue, Dr. Jenks assigned Trav-A-Dial re-design responsibilities to Irv Culver, the legendary Lockheed Skunkworks engineer who had recently left Lockheed to join SWI. Irv’s redesign resulted in what could arguably be called the most universally used machine tool measurement device of the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s.