The history of the Hamilton companies began in the late 1940s. Clark Hamilton, a chemical engineer, who had studied at MIT, developed a lead shielded syringe for precision handling of radioactive isotopes in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory near Berkeley, California. Upon relocation to Whittier, California and his garage there, Clark Hamilton’s activities quickly focused on the need for microliter liquid handling in the field of chromatography. By his effort, Hamilton became the world leader in sample handling for the field of chromatography, and in 1960 the fledgling company outgrew the family garage, proudly moving into its first of many rental facilities. These precision microliter syringes would provide the sample introduction to a chromatograph where precision, accuracy, and reproducibility were key in the separation science of chemistries. Even today, they remain the standard for use in chromatography.