TROY, N.Y. -- Since 1845, Gurley Precision Instruments has been a mainstay in downtown Troy.
"We started in surveying instruments. We have a long history with the growth of the United States, in particularly the West," Gurley Precision Instruments President Martin Gordinier said.
Evolving over the last 172 years, Gurley has produced water current meters, optics and encoders for precise measuring, which are used around the world in just about every industry you can imagine.
"Medical devices, semi-conductor, military and defense," Gordinier said. "I go a meeting in a couple weeks with Uber, which is using one of our encoders on the platform they have on top of cars. Battery separator material, green technology, cyber-technology."
It's also the manufacturer of a linear telescope which has likely helped a package of yours get delivered to your door.
"We made hundreds of thousands of those, and those have been used by DHL, UPS, FedEx, U.S. Postal Service to scan barcodes on packages," Gordinier said. "So Gurley's touched a lot of lives; you're just not familiar with it."
Today, the number-one industry Gurley serves is government, as it's currently working on a number of military contracts. It's also focusing on the aerospace industry and is working very closely with NASA.
"We have two applications that we're working on with NASA right now: One is involved with mapping the globe thermally, and the other is looking at the melting of ice on the polar ice caps," Gordinier said.
Gurley currently has 75 skilled employees. Many of its workers have worked there for decades, and others are recent graduates of nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
"A lot of the employees at Gurley have worked in this area or been here their whole lives. I'd like to think that we've contributed to the growth and change in Troy itself as a result of being here," said Gordinier.