The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., formerly the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, was founded by Charles Stark Draper in the late 1930s to teach students how to design the scientific instruments necessary to accurately measure and study motion. During World War II, the Instrumentation Lab developed the Inertial navigation system; this became its principal focus after receiving United States Department of Defense research contracts to develop navigation systems for ballistic missiles. Draper was spun off from MIT in 1973, in part due to anti-war protests.
