Our history
The Belfort Instrument Company was founded in 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland by Julien Friez. His vision was to furnish customers with instruments of uniform excellence and of highest reliability at fair prices so as to set the Standard of Measurement for the industry.
Julien Pierre Friez, a scientific instrument maker, came to the U.S. from Alsace in the 1870s and settled in Philadelphia. In 1876 Friez set up shop in Baltimore at the corner of German and Grant Streets. He named his factory Belfort in honor of the French victory at the siege of Belfort (1870–71) in the Franco-Prussian war. The Lion of Belfort, adopted by Friez as his company symbol, is a huge red stone lion in Belfort, France, erected by Frédéric Bartholdi — sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.
Belfort forged its leadership role in the development of meteorological instruments through extensive cooperation with the then newly formed U.S. Weather Bureau. Through these efforts, the Belfort Observatory became the first meteorological observatory and instrument laboratory in the United States by 1896. The Belfort Meteorological Observatory still stands at the corner of East Baltimore Street and Central Avenue in Baltimore's Jonestown neighborhood.
Over the years, Belfort products have been deployed in mission-critical applications in virtually all corners of the globe and beyond. From providing wind sensors for the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC to the development of mapping instruments in support of early efforts to map the surface of the moon, Belfort Instrument has been at the forefront of environmental measurement.
During the 1990s, Belfort began its research into the challenges of automated weather observations. When the U.S. National Weather Service announced plans to automate routine surface weather observations, Belfort designed and qualified three new sensors for the ASOS program. These sensors dramatically improved system efficiency and the quality and timeliness of routine observations.
Today Belfort Instrument continues to extend its leadership into new markets — including visibility, present weather and particulate monitoring — while remaining loyal to its founder's vision for quality, reliability, product support and value.