They Build Bottles to Hold Genies of Science

The eight workers at Radnoti Glass Technology Inc. in Monrovia hand-fabricate scientific instruments and vessels of all sizes and shapes for research labs, universities and hospitals all over the the world. President Desmond A. Radnoti Sr. started the company in 1970 to answer the demand for speciality items ordered in such small quantity that they cannot efficiently be produced by larger firms. Radnoti began his glass-blowing career in his native Budapest, Hungary, where he became an apprentice at age 15. He came to the United States in 1957 after the Hungarian revolution. He studied glass and chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and at the University of California, Berkeley. His company is one of a handful of firms in the Los Angeles area that specialize in fabricating glass for scientific purposes. According to Radnoti, each firm fills a special niche and his is one of the few in the Western United States producing large-capacity heat exchangers for pharmaceutical firms. He has patented many specialty glass items. His customers include the National Institutes of Health, USC, UCLA, Harvard and Yale universities, City of Hope and Johns Hopkins University.