Early life DuMont was born in
Brooklyn,
New York City, the son of Lillian Felton (Balcom) and William Henry Beaman DuMont. 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
crystal radio receiver which he assembled, took apart, reassembled and rebuilt several times. He improved his set each time he rebuilt it and later built a transmitter, while his father obtained the landlord's permission to erect a
transceiving antenna on the roof. While recuperating from polio, DuMont was advised to
swim to regain the use of his legs. In 1914, the family moved to
Montclair, New Jersey, where there was an indoor year-round pool available at the local
YMCA. He graduated from
Montclair High School in 1919, and went to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in
Troy, New York, where he was part of the
Alpha chapter of the
Theta Xi fraternity.
Radio and early interest in television 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
Westinghouse Lamp Company in
Bloomfield, New Jersey, in charge of
radio tube production. There he increased production from 500 tubes per day to an astounding 50,000 tubes per day. Management gave him a $500 bonus, a small raise, and devised the "Westinghouse Award" to recognize his accomplishments. The Westinghouse Award was later presented as a scholarship award to high school seniors showing promise in a field of science (later the
Intel Science Talent Search) Factory capacity was increased to 30,000 tubes per day. When De Forest took over the mechanical
television system of
C. Francis Jenkins, DuMont turned his attention to television. He was involved in the first television transmissions from W2XCD in
Passaic. But DuMont realized that clear images would need the development of scanning in a cathode-ray tube. DuMont worked to improve television transmission and reception and implored De Forest for funds to build a long-lasting cathode-ray tube for television reception. De Forest denied DuMont's request because De Forest's investors were demanding better returns. DuMont subsequently resigned at the same time that De Forest sold his radio manufacturing business to
David Sarnoff at RCA.
Cathode-ray tube and oscillograph 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. He started his own company,
Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, in the basement of his
Upper Montclair, NJ home, building long-lasting cathode-ray tubes. In 1931, he sold two tubes to two college science laboratories for $35 each. Since DuMont was a leader in
cathode-ray tube (CRT) design and manufacturing, it was a natural step to use the CRT as a visual measuring instrument or
oscilloscope. The production of CRT's and oscilloscopes was part of DuMont Laboratories in Upper Montclair. Needing more space he moved to a larger location in
Passaic, NJ in 1934. Although not the inventor of the oscilloscope, DuMont designed and mass-produced practical oscilloscopes (which he called oscillographs) for all types of laboratory, automotive/equipment servicing and manufacturing applications. By the 1940s DuMont was the leader in the oscilloscope equipment market. DuMont was one of the earliest designers of the triggered sweep
oscilloscope using a gas
thyratron vacuum tube (forerunner to the
silicon controlled rectifier or SCR). This allowed the oscilloscope to display a visual trace at a preset input signal level. In addition the sweep (trace across the CRT screen) could be regulated by the sweep speed or sweep frequency. This design allowed the oscilloscope to provide better visual detail of the signal being studied. The trigger was a frequency synchronizing type which provided viewing stability. The profits from the oscillographs helped DuMont invest in television design and his
DuMont TV Network. Unfortunately the time spent on his TV ventures cannibalized his profitable oscillograph business. In 1947, a young equipment manufacturer called
Tektronix produced the model 511 Time Base Trigger and Sweep Oscilloscope for $795. 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. 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.
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. 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. During the early years of World War II, DuMont received special government contracts to provide large wide cathode-ray tubes. These tubes allowed scientists working on the
Manhattan Project to study the action of accelerated electrons.
Other achievements 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. 410 radio. (green glow) In 1932, DuMont invented the
magic eye tube, or Electron Ray Tube, used as a tuning accessory in radios and as a level meter in mono and stereo home
reel-to-reel tape recorders. In the 1930s the manufacture of mechanical panel meters were labor-intensive and expensive. Magic eye tubes provided radio designers with a less expensive and more profitable way to add a feature usually found in higher priced equipment. The general public reception was a success as customers liked the green glow and the seemingly magical way it worked. He released details on his invention the following year. 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. ==DuMont Television Network==