top top top top top top •Edwin
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By most accounts, Armstrong was a very
private person, who allowed few people to
get close to him. He loved his wife, but
he was obsessed with radio, sometimes to
the exclusion of everything and everyone
around him. He became so totally consumed
with his fight to prove he was right about
FM that it finally caused the break-up of
his marriage. In the end, worn down by
money problems and frustrated by what he
saw as the failure of radio. MAXWELL'S
ETHER THEORY DIES - November, 13,
1931. The one-hundredth anniversary of
Clerk Maxwell's birth was marked by the
scientific world "digging a grave for the
theory of a luminiferous ether," but at
the same time honoring Maxwell's
mathematical genius. 4.
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b. December
18, 1890, in New York City, U.S.A.
d. January 31, 1954, NY, U.S.A.
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EDWIN HOWARD ARMSTRONG -- 1914 -
1954 A Westinghouse Engineer,
Philadelphia Superheterodyne: Westinghouse
Asset -- 1920 FM Radio - 1938
•••
Armstrong was born in
Yonkers, New York on December 18, 1890. He
died in New York on February 1, 1954.
•
•
Armstrong was
from a genteel, devoutly Presbyterian
family of Manhattan. He was the first
child in the family.
•
•
His mother,
Emily Smith Armstrong, had been a teacher
in the public schools and his father, John
Armstrong, was vice president of the
United States branch of the Oxford
University Press. The family soon moved to
the suburban town of Yonkers, N.Y., where
they lived in a house on a bluff
overlooking the Hudson River.
•
•
The house,
which still stands just up from the
Greystone railroad station, was declared a
historical landmark in 1978 by the Yonkers
Historical Society. Next door, on the
north side of the house at the corner of
Odell Avenue, was 1040 Warburton Avenue,
the home of Armstrong's maternal
grandparents.
•
•
The members
of the two families were a gregarious lot,
and Edwin's childhood was a happy one
filled with large gatherings of relatives,
many of whom were teachers. Learning was
prized. "Quick, boy! How much is nine
times five, minus three, divided by six,
times two, plus nine?" His great uncle,
Charles Hartman, principal of New York
City Public School 160 would quiz his
nephew to encourage his mental
agility.
From Yonkers, New York, he joined
the search for a bigger and better way to
broadcast music and voice. He published
his first report on his feedback or
regenerative circuit in Electrical World,
December, 1914. -
Continue
For More
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Troy
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CHINA
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The
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RadioPlayMusic
•
•
Continued
from above
-
Up until this time,
DeForest and others were mystified by the
strange behavior of the Audion under
certain circumstances. They felt it a
basic flaw and, we assume, did not look
much further in this direction, until
Armstrong came
along.
•
•Edwin
H. Armstrong is widely regarded as one of
the foremost contributors to the field of
radio-electronics. In fact, he's the only
one of the Smart-Daaf Boys that was
allowed to use the word radio in his
patent, 1933
- U.S. Patent 1941066 : December
26, 1933 - Armstrong "Radio signalling
system"
•
•
Armstrong received an undergraduate
degree in electrical engineering from
Columbia University. He was one of the
most prolific inventors of the radio era,
with a vision that was ahead of his
time and was the
holder of 42 patents for inventions in the
field of radio. His inventions and
developments help form the final touches
in the Voice / Music Radio Communication
WiFi spectrums commenced in by Smart-Daaf
Boys Stubblefield and Marconi, in
1892.
•
•He
invented the Regenerative circuit
(invented while he was a junior in college
at Columbia University, and patented
1914), the Super-regenerative circuit
(patented 1922), and the Super Heterodyne
receiver (patented 1918).
the
Superregenerative Circuit (1922) and the
complete frequency-modulation radio
broadcasting system (1933).
•
•
These basic
electronic circuits are underlying all
modern radio, radar, and
television. Armstrong's life is
both a story about the great inventions he
brought about, and the tragedy wherein
those inventions' rights were claimed by
others.
••••
At the turn of the 20th century,
when wireless telephony and telegraphy was
being publicly demonstrated, there were no
packets of instant coffee and Creamora
laying around, where all you had to do was
add hot water.
•••
Luckily for Armstrong, after 1913,
most of the WiFi hot spots need for
modern day telecom
usage,were just being introduced to the by
General Squire, of the U.S. Signal Corps.
The words "radio", "television, and
the terms "antenna", "radio tubes",
radar, flying aerial
devices and "AC alternators" were
all known to Armstrong, when he patented
his Super-regenerative circuit. Those
terms didn't exist when Smart-Daaf Boys,
Marconi and Stubblefield started their
wireless operations.
•••
In fact, to make telephony talk in
a big way, it took over eighteen years,
starting in 1892, just to get the
government to patent the first Wireless
Telephone™. It took another 90 years,
in 1996 -- before the first group of
Wireless Telephone™ frequencies were
sold to the general public, by the FCC for
billions of
dollars.
CLICK
TO SEE 1907 AUTO PATENT
DRAWING.
•••
Armstrong recognized the strange
behavior as oscillation, meaning the tube
that was properly supplied with direct
current acted to change this current to
alternating current&endash;the stuff from
which radio transmissions are made. In his
first paper, and subsequent papers and
talks, Armstrong showed how the amplified
signal taken from the plate of the Audion
could be used to strengthen the incoming
signal, which then would be amplified and
returned again to the incoming signal
(grid of the tube) and so until the point
of oscillation was almost reached.
Suddenly the barriers to consistent long
range radio communications were
down.
•••
•Edwin
Howard Armstrong's Superheterodyne patent
was purchased by Westinghouse. Having been
scrambling to compete with the
RCA-GE-AT&T alliance. Just a month
before KDKA's November, 1920, broadcast,
Westinghouse shrewdly bought the patents
to a new type of circuitry invented by a
graduate student at Columbia University,
Edwin H. Armstrong. While Armstrong was
serving in France in World War I, he
became interested in finding a way for
antiaircraft guidance systems to home in
on the radio waves emitted by aircraft
engines.
•••
Although his invention never aided
the war effort, it did spark the
development of the superheterodyne
circuit, an improvement on Fessenden's
heterodyne circuit. The superheterodyne
changed the frequency of incoming radio
waves, amplified them, then changed them
to an audible signal. Westinghouse also
acquired some patents held by Michael
Pupin, a Columbia professor who had worked
with Armstrong, permitting him to use his
laboratory and financing some of his
work.
••
No longer was it necessary for the
transmitter to actually power the
earphones producing the sound. Now all the
receiver required was a "smell" of the
signal and the receiver furnished the
power. The Spark-generator transmitter
meant a constant arc that consumed energy
at a voracious rate and generated a broad
band of radio frequencies that interfered
with reception.
•••
With the Audion, the triode, it
suddenly became possible to generate a
single frequency at high efficiency
without the heat and danger of the open
electric arc. The triode could be (and
was) used as an amplifier to strengthen
voice signals so that they could be sent
across the country. The triode also made
the heterodyne receiver practical.
Fessenden invented it, but Armstrong is
credited with inventing the
superheterodyne receiver, which is still
used today for AM radio
reception.
•••
To get a little ahead of our story,
Edwin Armstrong also invented and
developed FM radio transmission and
reception. For Armstrong and Lee DeForest,
the invention of the feedback circuit and
the superheterodyne was not an unmixed
blessing. It is reported that the two men
took a dislike to each other on sight, and
this mutual dislike didn't do anything to
alleviate their many years of legal
battles in the courts over their
respective patent claims. •
02
/
TimeLine.
Armstrong
•
1890 - Edwin H. Armstrong was born on
December 18, 1890, in New York City. His
mother, Emily Smith Armstrong, had been a
teacher in the public schools and his
father, John Armstrong, was vice president
of the United States branch of the Oxford
University Press.
• 1912 - the Regenerative Circuit
(invented while
he was a junior in college at Columbia
University, and patented 1914). Received
ndergraduate degree in electrical
engineering from Columbia University.
•
1914 - Deforest. Patented Regenerative
Circuit, and which was subsequently
patented by Lee De Forest in 1916; De
Forest then sold the rights to his patent
to AT&T.
•
1914
- U.S. Patent 1113149 : October
6, 1914 - Armstrong "Wireless Receiving
System" -
ARMSTRONG
•
1916 - Deforest. Patented Regenerative
Circuit, and which was subsequently
patented by Lee De Forest in 1916; De
Forest then sold the rights to his patent
to AT&T.
• 1917 - In
1917, while serving his country during
World War I as a captain in the US Signal
Corps, he invented the superheterodyne
circuit, which further improved the
ability to receive radio signals-- this
circuit allowed for greater selectivity
and amplification.
•
1917 - Armstrong
was the first recipient of the Institute
of Radio Engineers (IRE's, now IEEE),
Medal of Honor.
•
1918 - the Superheterodyne Circuit
(1918). Many of
Armstrong's inventions were ultimately
claimed by others in patent lawsuits.
Armstrong's life is both a story about the
great inventions he brought about, and the
tragedy wherein those inventions' rights
were claimed by others.
•
1919 - the
Radio Club of America recognised him as
radio's most important person, and held a
dinner and award ceremony for him at the
Hotel Ansonia in New York. He had been
promoted from Captain to Major in the
military, he was a respected university
lecturer on radio, and he was receiving
recognition from his peers-- as well as
attention from the print media.
•
1920
- U.S. Patent 1336378. April 6, 1920
- Armstrong
• 1920
- U.S. Patent 1342885 : June 8,
1920 - Armstrong "Method of receiving high
frequency
oscillation"
• 1922
- U.S. Patent 1424065 : July 25,
1922 - Armstrong "Signaling
System"the
Superregenerative Circuit
(1922)
•
1923 - Marriage
to Marion MacInnis in late 1923, to whom
Armstrong was introduced to by David
Sarnoff and who later ultimately betrayed
Armstrong
•
1931 -
MAXWELL'S
ETHER THEORY DIES - November, 13,
1931. The one-hundredth anniversary of
Clerk Maxwell's birth was marked by the
scientific world "digging a grave for the
theory of a luminiferous ether," but at
the same time honoring Maxwell's
mathematical genius.
•
1933 - the complete
frequency-modulation radio broadcasting
system (1933).
These
basic electronic circuits are underlying
all modern radio, radar, and television..
Rather than varying the amplitude of a
radio wave to create sound, Armstrong's
method varied the frequency of the wave
instead. FM radio receivers proved to
generate a much clearer sound, free of
static, than the AM radio dominant at the
time. In proving the utility of FM
technology, Armstrong successfully lobbied
the FCC to create an FM radio band,
between 42 and 49 MHz.
•
1933
- U.S. Patent 1941066 : December
26, 1933 - Armstrong "Radio Signaling
System"
•
1934 • 1922-1934 - Between 1922
and 1934, Armstrong found himself
embroiled in a patent war, between
himself, RCA, and Westinghouse on one
side, and De Forest and AT&T on the
other. This patent lawsuit was the longest
ever litigated to its date, at 12 years.
Armstrong won the first round of the
lawsuit, lost the second, and stalemated
in a third. Before the United States
Supreme Court, De Forest was granted the
regeneration patent in what is today
widely believed to be a misunderstanding
of the technical facts by the Supreme
Court.
•
1938 - Armstrong
Tower is a 129.6 metre tall lattice tower
built and used by Edwin Armstrong in 1938
at Alpine, New Jersey, USA at
40°57'39.0" N and 73°55'21.0" W
for his transmission experiments.
Armstrong Tower looks like a huge pylon
with three crossbars and is now used for
directional radio
services.
•
1940 - In the early 1940s, shortly
before and during World War II, Armstong
then helped to market a small number of
high powered FM radio stations in the New
England states, known as the Yankee
Network. Armstrong had begun on a journey
to convince America that FM radio was
superior to AM, and, he hoped, to collect
patent royalties on every radio sold with
FM technology.
• •
•
However, the
FM radio which threatened to destroy the
AM radio proved to be too revolutionary
for the RCA (Radio Corporation of
America), Armstrong's then employer. RCA
began to lobby for a change in the law or
FCC regulations that would prevent the FM
radios from becoming dominant.
•
1942 - He received in 1942 the AIEEs
Edison Medal "For distinguished
contributions to the art of electric
communication, notably the regenerative
circuit, the superheterodyne, and
frequency modulation".
•
1945 - By June of 1945, the Radio
Corporation of America, RCA had pushed the
FCC hard on the allocation of
electromagnetic frequencies for the
fledgling television industry. Although
they denied wrongdoing, David Sarnoff and
RCA managed to get the FCC to move the FM
radio spectrum from (42 to 49 MHz), to (88
to 108 MHz), while getting new television
channels allocated in the 40-megahertz
range.
• •
This single FCC
action rendered
all Armstrong-era FM sets useless
overnight, while
helping
protect RCA's strong AM radio stronghold.
Armstrong's radio network did not survive
the frequency shift up into the high
frequencies; most experts believe that FM
technology was set back decades by the
FCC's decision. This
change was strongly supported by AT&T,
because loss of FM relaying stations
forced radio stations to buy wired links
from AT&T.
•
1954 - Driven
to despair over the FM
debacle
Armstrong jumped
to his death from the thirteenth floor
window of his New York City flat on 31
January 1954.
• 1967 - His second wife and
widow Marion
renewed the patent fightafter Armstrong's
death against RCA and finally prevailed in
1967. It
took decades after Armstrong's death for
FM radio to meet and surpass the
saturation of AM, and longer still for FM
radio to become profitable for its
broadcasters. Ultimately,
however,
the genius of FM technology was proven by
its wide adoption today.
However,
Armstrong's invention, and his genius,
were ultimately proven in the marketplace
by today's broad acceptance of the FM
band.
•
1978 - Armstrongs parents' house on a
bluff overlooking the Hudson River.in the
suburban town of Yonkers, N.Y. which still
stands, was declared a historical landmark
in 1978 by the Yonkers Historical Society.
•
•
•
1980 - in
1980, Armstrongewas inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame.
•
1988 - the Armstrong Memorial Research
Foundation at Columbia University issued
an informational booklet about his life
and his many accomplishments, noting, "At
least one of Armstrong's three key
inventions-- the regenerative and
superheterodyne circuits and wide band
frequency modulation-- is a vital
component of almost all current
telecommunications equipment
worldwide."
03
•
Armstrong - 1896 to 1928, and DeForest's
improvements on Marconi's Wireless
Telegraphy™, utilizing the Audion,
EXCERPTS From the Smart-Daaf Boys:
Smart
Daaf Boys - Products
•In
particular, the regenerative circuit,
which Armstrong patented in 1914, was
subsequently patented by Lee De Forest in
1916; De Forest then sold the rights to
his patent to AT&T. Between 1922 and
1934, Armstrong found himself embroiled in
a patent war, between himself, RCA, and
Westinghouse on one side, and De Forest
and AT&T on the other. This patent
lawsuit was the longest ever litigated to
its date, at 12 years. Armstrong won the
first round of the lawsuit, lost the
second, and stalemated in a third. Before
the United States Supreme Court, De Forest
was granted the regeneration patent in
what is today widely believed to be a
misunderstanding of the technical facts by
the Supreme
Court.
•
•
Even as the regeneration circuit lawsuit
continued, Armstrong created another
significant invention: frequency
modulation (FM, patented in 1933). Rather
than varying the amplitude of a radio wave
to create sound, Armstrong's method varied
the frequency of the wave instead. FM
radio receivers proved to generate a much
clearer sound, free of static, than the AM
radio dominant at the
time.
•
•
In proving the utility of FM technology,
Armstrong successfully lobbied the FCC to
create an FM radio band, between 42 and 49
MHz.
•
•
In the early 1940s, shortly before and
during World War II, Armstong then helped
to market a small number of high powered
FM radio stations in the New England
states, known as the Yankee Network.
Armstrong had begun on a journey to
convince America that FM radio was
superior to AM, and, he hoped, to collect
patent royalties on every radio sold with
FM
technology.
•
•
•
However, the FM radio which
threatened to destroy the AM radio proved
to be too revolutionary for the RCA (Radio
Corporation of America), Armstrong's then
employer. RCA began to lobby for a change
in the law or FCC regulations that would
prevent the FM radios from becoming
dominant.
•
•
By June of 1945, the Radio Corporation of
America, RCA had pushed the FCC hard on
the allocation of electromagnetic
frequencies for the fledgling television
industry. Although they denied wrongdoing,
David Sarnoff and RCA managed to get the
FCC to move the FM radio spectrum from (42
to 49 MHz), to (88 to 108 MHz), while
getting new television channels allocated
in the 40-megahertz
range.
•
•
Coincidentally, this single FCC
action
rendered all
Armstrong-era FM sets useless overnight,
while
helping protect
RCA's strong AM radio stronghold.
Armstrong's radio network did not survive
the frequency shift up into the high
frequencies; most experts believe that FM
technology was set back decades by the
FCC's decision. This change was
strongly supported by AT&T, because
loss of FM relaying stations forced radio
stations to buy wired links from
AT&T.
•
•
Furthermore, RCA also claimed
invention of FM radio and
ultimately won its
own patent on FM technology, and won the
ensuing patent fight between themselves
and Edwin Armstrong, leaving Armstrong
without the ability to claim royalties on
FM radios sold in the United States. The
undermining of the Yankee Network and
patent court fight left Armstrong
virtually penniless and emotionally
destroyed.
•
•
Furthermore, RCA a A patent fight
between RCA and Armstrong ensued. RCA's
momentous victory in the courts left
Armstrong unable to claim royalties on any
FM radios sold in the United States. The
undermining of Yankee Network and Patent
Court battle brought ruin to Armstrong, by
then, almost penniless and emotionally
distraught.
Suicide
•
•
Driven to despair over the FM
debacle
Armstrong jumped to his death from
the thirteenth floor window of his New
York City flat on 31 January 1954.
His second wife and
widow Marion renewed the patent
fight against RCA and finally prevailed in
1967. It took
decades after Armstrong's death for FM
radio to meet and surpass the saturation
of AM, and longer still for FM radio to
become profitable for its broadcasters.
Ultimately,
however,
the genius of FM technology was proven by
its wide adoption
today.
However, Armstrong's invention, and
his genius, were ultimately proven in the
marketplace by today's broad acceptance of
the FM band.
•
•
Ironically, although he died believing he
was a failure, Armstrong's discoveries
continue to affect radio technology
decades later. In 1988, the Armstrong
Memorial Research Foundation at Columbia
University issued an informational booklet
about his life and his many
accomplishments, noting, "At least one of
Armstrong's three key inventions-- the
regenerative and superheterodyne circuits
and wide band frequency modulation-- is a
vital component of almost all current
telecommunications equipment worldwide."
While too few people today know his name,
his inventions laid the foundation for
much of our modern broadcast technology.
The Armstrong Foundation is dedicated to
making his achievements better known, and
expanding upon his research it established
an annual award in his name for excellence
in broadcasting, and has given grants to
support engineering and science students
who are doing promising work in
telecommunications. Edwin Howard Armstrong
was definitely one of broadcasting's
founding fathers, and he does not deserve
to be forgotten.
•
•
•
In 1917 Armstrong was the first
recipient of the IRE's, now IEEE, Medal of
Honor. He received in 1942 the AIEEs
Edison Medal "For distinguished
contributions to the art of electric
communication, notably the regenerative
circuit, the superheterodyne, and
frequency modulation". Recently, in 1980,
he was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame.
Armstrong
was the holder of 42 patents for
inventions in the field of radio. His
inventions and developments form the
backbone of Radio Communications as we
know it today.
•
1914
- U.S. Patent 1113149, Armstrong
October 6, 1914 - "Wireless Receiving
System"
• 1920
- U.S. Patent 1336378, Armstrong April
6, 1920
• 1920
- U.S. Patent 1342885, Armstrong June
8, 1920 - "Method of Receiving High
Fequency
Oscillation"
• 1922
- U.S. Patent 1424065, Armstrong
July 25, 1922 - "Signaling
System"
• 1933
- U.S. Patent 1941066, Armstrong
December 26, 1933 - "Radio
Signaling
System"
• 1942 - He received in 1942
the AIEEs Edison Medal "For distinguished
contributions to the art of electric
communication, notably the regenerative
circuit, the superheterodyne, and
frequency modulation".
After the Stubblefield Wireless
Telephone™ patent was granted in
1908, the "Radio" story becomes garbled
because too many "actors" enter upon the
stage. The U.S. government made it easy
for thousands of amateurs and "radio boys"
seeking the "hook up," to connect tubes,
coils, resistors, batteries, earphones,
antennas, grounds, capacitors,
transformers, that would produce maximum
results in reception and amplification to
the Wireless Telephone. The search spread
to thousands of homes. Vacuum tubes at the
time were manufactured by both GE and
Westinghouse. The equipment used to suck
air from a light bulb could perform the
same task in the manufacture of vacuum
tubes.
Notice to all
major Wireless Telephone Companies and
Wi-Fi Broadcasters. The Next Century of
the Wireless Telephone is waiting for you!
Get Ready for 2007 -- the 100th year of
the Registration of the Wireless Telephone
Patent and its Name.
Photos courtesy of Special Collections and
Archives of the Stubblefield Wireless
Trust and Murray State University. The
Wireless Telephone and other marks ©
® and ™ by the Stubblefield
Family Fund. www.nbstubblefield.com
/
www.wirelesstelephone.org
