Allen B. DuMont

Allen Balcom DuMont, also spelled Du Mont, (January 29, 1901 – November 14, 1965) was an American electronics engineer,

DuMont was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Lillian Felton (Balcom) and William Henry Beaman DuMont.^[1] At the age of 10, he was stricken with polio and was quarantined at his family's Eastern Parkway apartment for nearly a year. During his quarantine, his father brought home books and magazines for the young DuMont to read while bedridden. DuMont developed an interest in science, wireless radio communication, and taught himself Morse code.

His father bought him a

In 1915, DuMont became the youngest American to obtain a first class commercial radio operator's license at age 14. The following summer, he worked as a radio operator aboard a coastal steamer making runs from New York to Providence, Rhode Island. As the summers went by, he made his way to the Caribbean, South America and, after World War I, to Europe, where, during the summer of 1922, he was stuck in Copenhagen for months because of a dock workers' strike.

After graduating from Rensselaer in 1924, DuMont worked at the

DuMont had developed an improved version of the cathode-ray tube which was both cheaper to produce and longer-lasting than the typical German tubes in use– the imported tubes had a life of 25 to 30 hours. DuMont's invention of the first long-lasting cathode-ray tube made television commercially viable.

Since DuMont was a leader in

The profits from the oscillographs helped DuMont invest in television design and his DuMont TV Network.^[2] Unfortunately the time spent on his TV ventures cannibalized his profitable oscillograph business.^[8] In 1947, a young equipment manufacturer called Tektronix produced the model 511 Time Base Trigger and Sweep Oscilloscope for $795.^[9] The use of time instead of frequency to measure a sweep across the CRT was Tektronix's big selling point. Time measurements make it easier to interpret pulses and complex waveforms.^[10] It has been mentioned informally that Allen DuMont saw the model 511 demonstrated at an electronics show. He tried it and was impressed, but commented to Howard Vollum and Jack Murdock, co-founders of Tektronix that it was too expensive and they would be lucky to sell any.^[11] Tektronix's time base trigger and time sweep generator design would become the standard in the 1950s and into the 21st century. Tektronix would replace DuMont Oscillographs as the leading selling oscilloscope brand.^[12]

When Fairchild Camera and Instrument acquired DuMont Laboratories in 1960, oscilloscopes were still being made with the DuMont name brand. Allen DuMont became Group General Manager of the DuMont Division, until his death in 1965.^[2] All DuMont oscilloscopes in the late 1950s and after the Fairchild acquisition were using the time base trigger and time sweep generator method introduced by Tektronix. The DuMont line of oscilloscopes continued to be produced into the 1980s.^[13]

During the early years of World War II, DuMont received special government contracts to provide large 36 inches (91 cm) wide cathode-ray tubes. These tubes allowed scientists working on the Manhattan Project to study the action of accelerated electrons.

In 1932, DuMont proposed a "ship finder" device to the United States Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, that used radio wave distortions to locate objects on a cathode-ray tube screen, a type of radar. The military asked him, however, not to take out a patent because they wanted to maintain secrecy, so he is seldom mentioned among those responsible for radar.^{[citation needed]}

In 1932, DuMont invented the

DuMont produced black and white televisions in the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s that were generally regarded as offering highest quality and durability. Many of these premium sets included a built in AM/FM radio and record player.[15]

DuMont sold his television manufacturing division to Emerson Radio in 1958, and sold the remainder of the company to Fairchild Camera in 1960. Fairchild later developed semiconductor microchips. Robert Noyce, a co-founder of Intel, originally worked for DuMont as an engineer.

The DuMont Television Network was not an unqualified success, being faced with the major problem of how to make a profit without the benefit of an already established radio network as a base. After ten years, DuMont shuttered the network and sold what remained of his television operations to

DuMont was the first to provide funding for educational television broadcasting. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, among them the

DuMont enjoyed sailing. He owned a cruiser, the Hurricane III. He would participate in boat races and compete in navigation skills competition, winning three national championships. He died in 1965 and is buried in