Today in Technology History
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January 29
Allen Balcom DuMont was born on January 29, 1901. He was a pioneer in the television business.
DuMont was born in Brooklyn, but he lived most of his life in New Jersey. As a young man, he was stricken with polio; during his convalescence, he experimented with electronics and built a radio transmitter and receiver.
In the 1920s, after studying electrical engineering, DuMont took a job with a company that was manufacturing cathode-ray tubes. (A "cathode ray" is a stream of electrons, and a cathode-ray tube is basically a glass tube that emits electrons; when these electrons hit a screen coated with phosphor, light is emitted.)
It can be argued that DuMont built the first practical cathode-ray tubes, since he improved their design and durability, and made them much easier to assemble. He opened Allen B. DuMont Laboratories in 1931 to manufacture his superior cathode-ray tubes. In time, DuMont's company became the first manufacturer of home television sets, since cathode-ray tubes are a central component of television technology.
Not only was DuMont involved in making TV hardware, but he also got involved in TV "software": programming. He bought and built several TV stations, beginning the world's first commercial television network. Eventually, the DuMont network failed, due to competition from TV networks funded by radio broadcasters like NBC and CBS. (Most of the DuMont stations became part of Metromedia, which eventually became the core of the Fox TV network.)
Despite the failure of his network, DuMont was the first person to become a millionaire thanks to television. He died in 1965.
Related links:
Click here to read about cathode ray tubes.
Click here to read about the technology behind TV.
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