In 1947 Dr Ludolf Jenckel, a young physicist at the Atlas-Werke in Bremen, Germany, had an idea: he rented a cellar in a hospital and in his spare time tried building a mass spectrometer. After completion of a primitive prototype, Jenckel talked the Atlas management into setting up a small division, MAT, to build mass spectrometers for sale. The prototype was redesigned and in 1950 the first series instrument, the CH3, came out. Throughout the first years of MAT the sales figures remained quite low. However Jenckel did not give up. He initiated the development of a successor model, the 60 ° sector CH4, which was introduced in 1958. Over 400 installations of this instrument strengthened MAT's position in the following years. In 1967 MAT was acquired by Varian Associates, Palo Alto and MAT continued to grow. Novel techniques were introduced, new mass spectrometers were developed for all kinds of applications and MAT became one of the leading producers of mass spectrometers in the world. By 1976 more than 1000 instruments had been delivered. In 1981 Finnigan in San Jose took over MAT and a fruitful technical cooperation between Bremen and San Jose began. This year MAT celebrates its 50th birthday. It is one of the few mass spectrometry companies which have stayed in the forefront over the years.