--- title: A Better Mousetrap description: Amber Nelson Brunson was forced to leave school after the 3rd grade to help his family make ends meet, but what he lacks in formal education he makes up for in mechanical aptitude, design skills and determination. image: https://blog.brunson.us/hubfs/Brunson-history.jpg --- [![Brunson Instrument Company](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/Brunson-Logo_white.png?width=1079&name=Brunson-Logo_white.png "Brunson Instrument Company")](http://brunson.us) # A Blog for Metrology Enthusiasts # A Better Mousetrap ![David Buck](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/david-buck-headshot.jpg?width=60&name=david-buck-headshot.jpg)By David Buck ## ***The Great Depression may have been the best thing that ever happened to Brunson Instrument Company.*** ![Brunson-history](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/Brunson-history.jpg?width=600&name=Brunson-history.jpg) *Amber Nelson Brunson repairing precision surveying equipment in his shop, 1929.* The founder's story is like many of the early 1900s: an ambitious, gifted and intelligent young man moves from a hardscrabble farm (and a log cabin!) to the big city to look for work. Amber Nelson Brunson was forced to leave school after the 3rd grade to help his family make ends meet, but what he lacks in formal education he makes up for in mechanical aptitude, design skills and determination. The budding entrepreneur launches a surveying equipment repair business in Kansas City. The year is 1927, and this creative and dedicated 23-year-old doggedly pursues his dream of designing, testing and manufacturing new products—often toiling late into the night, snatching bits of sleep on a cot in the corner of his shop. ![the-initial-designs](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/the-initial-designs.jpg?width=600&name=the-initial-designs.jpg)*The initial designs.* Within two decades, Brunson's product design skills would find him helping **aircraft manufacturers** launch the jet age, and soon after, the space age, as **rocket builders** would seek his creative new industrial measurement tools. His company's precision products would ship to industrial customers factories around the world, and still do to this day. Mr. Brunson died at age 83 in 1989—the two dozen or so patents he earned was a testimony to his tenacity and his genius. His creative legacy lives on with Brunson Instrument Company's 13 patents pending and 9 granted in just the last ten years—Amber Brunson would have been proud of our current innovations, like [STASIS](https://brunson.us/stasis.html), [KinAiry](https://brunson.us/kinairy-laser-tracker-field-test-solution), [TetraLock](https://brunson.us/metrology-stands-3d-measurement-portable-for-metrology-tetralock.html), and our many [stands for 3D metrology](https://brunson.us/metrology-3d-measurement-stands-mounts-accessories-for-metrology). **![patent](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/patent.jpg?width=600&name=patent.jpg)** **Amber Brunson's very first patent** was born out of economic necessity and extreme weather conditions—the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl—and the resulting product put the company on the map. And that first patent was granted to the company 80 years ago today, on June 27, 1939. How do you grow a business when no one has any money? Amber Brunson had an idea... Watch the story here --- ![David Buck](https://blog.brunson.us/hubfs/david-buck-headshot.jpg) By David Buck on Jun 27, 2019 12:01:09 PM - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Topics: [Brunson History](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/brunson-history) ![](https://blog.brunson.us/hs-fs/hubfs/david-buck-headshot.jpg?height=70&name=david-buck-headshot.jpg) ### Recent Posts ### Subscribe to Email Updates ## About the blog The Brunson blog is designed to be a platform for collaborative exploration in the field of metrology. You can expect to explore new Brunson products, hear from industry professionals invited to be contributing editors, and gain insight from customers who use Brunson products. So if you are one of the chosen few people who understand that Metrology is not a study of the weather, please join us here. ### Posts by Topic - [Metrology (20)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/metrology) - [Optical Tooling (10)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/optical-tooling) - [Sawmill (8)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/sawmill) - [Brunson History (7)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/brunson-history) - [laser tracker (7)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/laser-tracker) - [smr (5)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/smr) - [target holder (5)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/target-holder) - [optical alignment (3)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/optical-alignment) - [3d (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/3d) - [Alignment (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/alignment) - [East Coast Metrology (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/east-coast-metrology) - [lumber industry (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/lumber-industry) - [machine geometry (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/machine-geometry) - [measurement (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/measurement) - [sawmill alignment (2)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/sawmill-alignment) - [B89 (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/b89) - [Contributing Editors (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/contributing-editors) - [KinAiry (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/kinairy) - [NIST (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/nist) - [Roll Alignment (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/roll-alignment) - [TetraLock (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/tetralock) - [calibration (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/calibration) - [cave (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/cave) - [ccr (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/ccr) - [interim field test (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/interim-field-test) - [photogrammetry (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/photogrammetry) - [retroreflective (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/retroreflective) - [stand (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/stand) - [verification (1)](https://blog.brunson.us/blog/topic/verification) see all © 2026 Brunson Instrument Company ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "VideoObject", "contentUrl" : "https://354518.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/354518/Dust%20Proof%20Base%2c%20first%20patent%20excerpt.mp4", "dateModified" : "2022-06-01T07:32:32.155Z", "duration" : "PT2M34S", "height" : 720, "name" : "Dust Proof Base, first patent excerpt", "thumbnailUrl" : "https://api-na1.hubapi.com/filemanager/api/v3/files/thumbnail-redirect/10791134059?portalId=354518&size=medium", "uploadDate" : "2019-06-26T18:57:55.446Z", "width" : 1280 } ```