Battelle history

In 1929, Battelle partnered with the Reynolds Metals Company on Battelle's second-ever research project, Project S-2: Aluminum Foil.

Battelle's first United States patent was filed in 1932 by inventors Horace W. Gillett, Battelle's first president, and Howard Cross.

Battelle first identified the benefits of copper for improved crop yield in 1942.

1944: Battelle receives the Ordnance Distinguished Service Award for welding techniques and the development of platings and coatings that increased the life of weapons and equipment from the United States Army.

In 1947, the Reynolds Metals Company released Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil.

Battelle scientists developed fuel for the United States Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, in 1949.

In 1956, Battelle’s lab was used by industry in the development of reactors for power production and propulsion.

Jules Verne’s fictional Nautilus may have been powered by seawater, but it would take the solvers of Battelle to provide the nuclear fuel for its United States Navy counterpart, which on August 3, 1958 became the first nuclear-powered submarine to navigate to the North Pole.

Retail stores and grocery stores across the United States use the bar code system, known as the Universal Product Code or UPC symbol, that Battelle developed in 1965.

In 1967, Battelle provided $85,000 to a joint transportation study with the City of Columbus.

Batelle also introduced cruise control in cars in 1970.

In 1971, Battelle perfected and patented a system of transferring information through the modulation of a laser beam, providing the catalyst for their early fiber optics work.

In 1973, the 12-digit linear UPC code submitted by IBM was chosen as the standard for industry.

On June 26, 1974, a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, sold a pack of Juicy Fruit gum as the first retail item with an official UPC code and a scanner.

The first photograph of Uranus was taken in 1986 thanks in part to research done at Battelle.

Years later in 1987, Battelle joined forces with Mitsubishi and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation to form the Photon Integration Research Inc. (PIRI) to commercialize fiber optic technologies.

Since 1989, Battelle supported military and civilian objectives through more than 650 programs in the development of biological and chemical defense systems, materials, vaccines and preventive measures.

Battelle's first experiment in space was aboard the April 1990 launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

In 1993, Battelle researchers developed a technique to determine the origins of oil–based hazardous waste–even decades after a spill occurred.

In 2003, Battelle was selected by the United States Department of Energy to lead a group of public and private partners to explore the viability of carbon sequestration as a key climate change mitigation technology.

The first spacecraft to use solar sailing for propulsion in Earth orbit The first small spacecraft to demonstrate solar sailing The second-ever solar sail spacecraft to successfully fly, following Japan's IKAROS launch in 2010

In 2014, Battelle released the first massively parallel sequencing (MPS) software for DNA analysis.

Since assuming management of the observatory in 2016, Battelle has successfully transitioned all 81 field sites (across 20 domains) from construction to operations and positioned the program to be a powerful player in the ecology community for decades to come.

The NNSA notified Triad on July 5, 2018 that it could proceed with the launch of the official transition process–an important milestone for the initiative.