Like the Dalton Dead Reckoning Computer and Weems Plotter of the same era, the manufacturing of the AN-5837-1 was contracted out to several different companies during the war. The AN-5837-1 Altitude Correction Computer in our museum collection is one of those said instruments, and while it might look better suited to hypnotizing a pilot than keeping him on course, the general consensus seems to be that these little eight-inch plotters-in their own small way-helped win the day. Felsenthal & Sons had unapologetically peddled in “advertising novelties”-trinkets and doo-dads that, by their very definition, were among the first types of manufacturing shelved when wartime rationing called only for “necessities.” What might have spelled doom for the Felsenthals, however, wound up plotting the company on a dramatically different course, as the factory that once made cheap pens and piggy banks wound up making 80% of the plastic aviation navigation instruments used by the flyboys overseas. For more than 40 years, the Chicago firm of G. In the same way many a rough-and-tumble kid found discipline and a greater purpose during World War II, so too were many businesses transformed as a result of those extraordinary circumstances. Felsenthal & Sons ad in Flying Magazine, January 1944
Yet, with the navigational instruments precision made by Felsenthal, in Felsenthal Plastics, Army Airmen fly the toughest country in the world.” - G. no rocky peak so kind it steps aside to let a plane go by. Museum Artifact: Altitude Correction Computer, c.