About Us
Metis
began as a part time operation in 1972 to assist clients with the design,
construction, and installation of
specialized equipment. Over the years since, Metis has successfully
provided these services in a wide variety of industries, as seen on
the right. The broad background of the founder allows Metis to address
a wide variety of problems with his experiences in many disciplines.
Metis is a family operated company. Eric Pritchard is
the founder and chief of Metis. His wife, Linda, keeps the paperwork
flowing. Her son, Ronald Ridgely is the machinist with 10 years of experience.
And Tom Tommarello specializes in electronics and computers.
The Metis facilities include an office, electronics
shop, machine shop, and an assembly area.
Eric Pritchard has degrees in mathematics and electrical
engineering and is skilled as a mechanical engineer, machinist, computer
programmer, and electrician. He has been awarded 40 U.S. Patents, many
foreign patents, and has several more pending. His patents cover many
different topics: food processing, nuclear tolerant circuitry, stepping
motor drives, computer architecture,
guitar tuners and strings, autostereoscopic photography,
artistic audio amplifiers, speaker systems, and most recently, a specialized
machine tool. In addition to the articles that he has had published,
he has been mentioned in two books
and various articles about Paul Reed Smith. He has been listed in the
credits for special film effects. Eric worked for the Navy as an electrical
engineer in nuclear weapons related efforts.
Ronald Ridgely has been a machinist for Metis since
he started in a work-study program in high school. He immediately started
working at a much higher level than he would have in school and was
instrumental in completing the task at hand, a remote controlled autostereoscopic
35 millimeter movie camera. Ron is quite serious. He works to get everything
right the first time because he really hates doing things over.
Tom Tommarello is a more recent graduate of the local
technical school. He is an electronics and computer technician plus
a good machinist. In fact, you are looking at some of Tom’s handiwork
right now.
Linda Pritchard keeps all of the paperwork flowing:
letters, invoices, shipping tickets, tax forms, checks and more.
Metis
is located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, near Northern
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. We are about 2 hours west of Baltimore
and Washington, less than an hour from Winchester, Virginia, and about
2 hours southwest of Harrisburg. The facilities are located near US
522 between I 70 and I 81.