Belfort Instrument Company

From its beginnings in 1876, Belfort Instrument Company has assisted the government in gathering meticulous weather readings and benefiting travelers on the land, sea, and air. Founded at around the same time, Belfort Instrument Company and the United States Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) regularly collaborated to create gear based on a uniform standard of measurements. Through the cooperation of the U.S. Weather Bureau, the firm built the Belfort Observatory, the nation’s original meteorological observatory and instrument laboratory. Additionally, primary efforts to map the moon’s surface utilized Belfort Instrument Company products.

In the 1990s, the National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense joined to develop the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), a program that gathers routine surface climate data to offer weather readings to airfields throughout the nation. ASOS includes three Belfort Instrument Company sensors and they appear in the more than 1,200 stations across multiple countries where the system has been installed. The sensors provide accurate information on wind speed, wind direction, and visibility.

Beyond meteorological information, Belfort Instrument Company’s products offer benefit to other military and industrial needs. The firm’s crane alarms, which monitor wind loads on cranes and sounds alerts via a stop-operation horn, meet U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. The Aerovane Model 140 Wind Indicator can determine wind speeds up to 120 knots and wind direction from 0 to 360 degrees with 0.1 degree resolution. Belfort Instrument Company’s geophysical, environmental, analysis, and hazard equipment meets the Office of General Supplies and Services’ qualifications for federal acquisitions.