56 Years Ago Tonight - Major Armstrong's Death

[W1UJR]

Major Edwin Howard Armstrong.


56 years ago tonight, a great man of radio, arguably one of the greatest men, went on to his reward.

If the name E. Howard Armstrong does not ring a bell with you, it
should, for without Armstrong, radio as we know it would not exist.

The Major, he earned that rank during the first World War, had three
particular memorable inventions, the forming the very foundations of
radio today: regeneration, the superheterodyne, and frequency modulation.

It is hard to look at Armstrong's life and not feel him ill used by
his former employer RCA. RCA had been building televisions and FM
receivers for eight years and despite using his circuit designs, paid
absolutely nothing to Armstrong in licensing fees. Knowing this his
patents would expire in but a short time, Armstrong took action with a
patent infringement suit against RCA in 1949. Armstrong asked RCA for
a $2.4 million settlement but they came back with an offer of but
$200,000, which didn't even begin to cover his legal fees.

Plagued with legal challenges, as he had been for nearly all of his
professional career, on January 31, 1954, he wrote a two-page letter
to wife Marion, and left it on his apartment desk.

He dressed neatly in an overcoat, hat, scarf, and gloves, and walked
out a 13th story window of his apartment at the River House in New York City.

Armstrong's widow continued his legal fight over the twenty-some
infringement suits and over a period of about 13 years won over $10 million.

An interview with Armstrong's attorney, Dana M. Raymond, can be read here -->> <http://www.fathom.com/course/10701020/session2.html>

An excellent book on the life of Major Armstrong is Lawrence Lessing's "Man Of High Fidelity", which be viewed and read online at -->> <http://www.archive.org/details/manofhighfidelit002474mbp>


Cordially,

Bruce J. Howes W1UJR
www.w1ujr.net

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Probably the greatest inventor of his generation.

[WA3VJB]

His tower, at Alpine, NJ, stands as one of the testaments to his work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdAc9XmyBw

[WA1GFZ]

and we all know sarnoff was an ass hole even if he landed in the history books

[WQ9E]

Bruce,

Thanks for posting a reminder of a truly sad anniversary.  It is truly amazing the impact this one person had upon not just radio but the major events of the century that were in no small way shaped by his contributions to communications technology.

This probably is not the only case in history where the major had much more to contribute than the general (Sarnoff).

I imagine that both Armstrong and Tesla could have some interesting conversations about their previous employers.

[W1UJR]

I imagine that both Armstrong and Tesla could have some interesting conversations about their previous employers.

You bet Rodger, I hope to get a chance to meet them both some day.
Assuming that they both "made it".

Not sure if you know, but the NY Times has an interesting archive section on their website. When researching the Gross Radio Company, I downloaded a number of articles about, and letters by, Tesla. Fascinating reading. I imagine that one can do the same with Armstrong.

[w1vtp]

Thanks  for reminding us Bruce.  How could I forget.  I just finished reading that book  just 6 months ago.  Truly a great man.

Al

[WQ9E]

You bet Rodger, I hope to get a chance to meet them both some day.
Assuming that they both "made it".

Not sure if you know, but the NY Times has an interesting archive section on their website. When researching the Gross Radio Company, I downloaded a number of articles about, and letters by, Tesla. Fascinating reading. I imagine that one can do the same with Armstrong.

Bruce,

There are quite a few acquaintances I hope to make in "the great coffee shop in the sky".

I will look into the NY Times archive, thanks for the heads up!  Also, I am happy that you conducted research into the Gross radio company.  I was fascinated by all of their transmitters listed in Moore's book having never run across one in person.

Rodger

[W2XR]

Major Edwin Howard Armstrong.


56 years ago tonight, a great man of radio, arguably one of the greatest men, went on to his reward.

If the name E. Howard Armstrong does not ring a bell with you, it
should, for without Armstrong, radio as we know it would not exist.

The Major, he earned that rank during the first World War, had three
particular memorable inventions, the forming the very foundations of
radio today: regeneration, the superheterodyne, and frequency modulation.

It is hard to look at Armstrong's life and not feel him ill used by
his former employer RCA. RCA had been building televisions and FM
receivers for eight years and despite using his circuit designs, paid
absolutely nothing to Armstrong in licensing fees. Knowing this his
patents would expire in but a short time, Armstrong took action with a
patent infringement suit against RCA in 1949. Armstrong asked RCA for
a $2.4 million settlement but they came back with an offer of but
$200,000, which didn't even begin to cover his legal fees.

Plagued with legal challenges, as he had been for nearly all of his
professional career, on January 31, 1954, he wrote a two-page letter
to wife Marion, and left it on his apartment desk.

He dressed neatly in an overcoat, hat, scarf, and gloves, and walked
out a 13th story window of his apartment at the River House in New York City.

Armstrong's widow continued his legal fight over the twenty-some
infringement suits and over a period of about 13 years won over $10 million.

An interview with Armstrong's attorney, Dana M. Raymond, can be read here -->> <http://www.fathom.com/course/10701020/session2.html>

An excellent book on the life of Major Armstrong is Lawrence Lessing's "Man Of High Fidelity", which be viewed and read online at -->> <http://www.archive.org/details/manofhighfidelit002474mbp>


Cordially,

Bruce J. Howes W1UJR
www.w1ujr.net

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for reminding us.

I had been thinking earlier this month that this would be the 56th anniversary of the great mans death, but Janet and I just returned from a party this evening, and I had completely forgotten about it. Armstrong died the very year and month that I was born, so to some extent, this is always a month of reflection for me, considering that he is one of my all-time heroes.

Funny that to me Armstrong is my hero, whereas to many younger people, rock and rap stars, athletes, and reality television personalities are their heros. There is clearly no accounting for taste.

In all due respect to my friend Frank, WA1GFZ; David Sarnoff really was not an a--hole. He was a very savvy businessman and was superbly prescient as to what the public desired from an electronics and entertainment standpoint. Low cost AM broadcast receivers, the concept of modern radio and television broadcasting and the channel for it in the form of the National Broadcasting Corporation, color television, amongst other incredible technical developments in the electronics art, were all championed and succcessfully brought to market under Sarnoff's reign. I agree that Sarnoff (and the RCA) treated Armstrong and Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of electronic television, very poorly, but this was business. I am not attempting to rationalize Sarnoffs actions, particularly with regard to Armstrong, but he did what was ultimately in the best  interests of the RCA and their shareholders, as selfish to us as it may seem.

It took 15 years after Armstrongs death, but his wife Marion went on to successfully win every single one of the lawsuits filed against RCA, Motorola, etc. Motorola was the last hold-out, and they finally settled with Mrs. Armstrong in 1969. The lawsuit was one the longest running cases of litigation in the history of this country. I believe the total damages awarded to Mrs. Armstrong were on the order of $15MM.

To the Major, I say on behalf of all of us, sic gloria transit mundi.

73,

Bruce

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Stealing from someone makes the one doing the stealing an a$$hole. No getting around it with words lilke championing, business, etc.

[WA1GFZ]

business the universal excuse

[KC4VWU]

Sarnoff was a thug, plain and simple. Smacks of the quote, "The ends justifies the means." Had they (big business) given full recognition and compensation to those who deserved it, maybe we would have seen many more great leaps in technology at the time and some would have led happier, more fulfilled lives rather than the misery they had to endure daily. Sarnoff was undoubtedly a saavy businessman, albeit a cutthroat one.

The only gratification is that even though most average people dosen't recognize the names of Armstrong and Farnsworth, neither do they recognized Sarnoff. He had his cake , ate it, and pooped it out. GONE.

Long live the memories and legacies of the Great Minds from days past!

Phil

[W1RKW]

This topic was brought up a year or so ago which inspired me to reread "Empire of the Air, The Men Who Made Radio".  Sarnoff was an A-hole. At first I didn't get that impression but realized, yep, a snake and that was a mild interpretation in the book.  Just never caught when it first came out.  Got to caught up in the glory of the story.

[W3SLK]

Bob said:

This topic was brought up a year or so ago which inspired me to reread "Empire of the Air, The Men Who Made Radio".

I've read and re-read that book about a dozen times, (a good book is worth reading more than twice  ). Anyway, what I learned about Sarnoff is that he was at the right place at the right time. He liked power and money and was hell-bent on keeping both. I think he saw the success in Maj. Armstrong's systems/devices and felt he would lose one of his hard-earned (to him anyway), prizes. So he fought him on all fronts, knowing that he could have made more money by compromise but he would have had to loosen his grip on power. The other interesting thing is that Edwin Armstrong's wife used to be David Sarnoff's secretary!

[W2XR]

This topic was brought up a year or so ago which inspired me to reread "Empire of the Air, The Men Who Made Radio".  Sarnoff was an A-hole. At first I didn't get that impression but realized, yep, a snake and that was a mild interpretation in the book.  Just never caught when it first came out.  Got to caught up in the glory of the story.

DeForest; now there was an a$$hole. Smart man, but always looking for the easy path, and living off of the work of others.


"Empire of the Air" was a great book.  I have seen the Ken Burns film probably 15 times.

73,

Bruce

[WA1GFZ]

Lee quickly became a has been

[The Slab Bacon]

I have also seen that movie many times, here is my take:

Edwin Howard Armstrong was a brilliant inventor, but also a very proud man and a bit of an egomaniac. His ego is what drove him to his death.

David Sarnoff was a shrewd businessman, and a ruthless "snake in the grass".

Lee DeForrest was a plain old kook and a nutcase. (I remember seeing him on the tonight show when I was a young JN) (He was introduced as "the father of radio" Ha Ha)

Sarnoff would take advantage of anyone he could to make a buck. But his ruthlessness did create one of the most well known companies of all time - RCA!

Sarnoff was the business brains and Armstrong was the technical brain. their joint creation by far outlasted all of them. That is still a major accomplishment for anyone to pull off. But I do agree David Sarnoff was a ruthless bastard! !

                                                          The Slab Bacon

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Sarnoff would take advantage of anyone he could to make a buck. But his ruthlessness did create one of the most well known companies of all time - RCA!

Not true. RCA was essentially created by the US Government via General Electric in response to WWI and the fact that a foreign company, Marconi, owned most of the transatlantic radio communications facilities in the USA. The idea was to make RCA the US version of Marconi so the US would never beholden to a foreign power or company again, especially in a time of war.

RCA was created by pooling many significant radio and technology patents and assets from Pan-American Telegraph, American Marconi and General Electric. The US Navy had taken over the Marconi stations in the USA during the war. The Navy turned these over to RCA. Patents from Westinghouse, AT&T and others came under the RCA shortly after RCA being created. Sarnoff became the head of RCA after all this took place.

Ironically, all these years later, the RCA name (and some of RCAs assets) is owned by a foreign company, Thompson of France.

[W2XR]

Sarnoff would take advantage of anyone he could to make a buck. But his ruthlessness did create one of the most well known companies of all time - RCA!

Not true. RCA was essentially created by the US Government via General Electric in response to WWI and the fact that a foreign company, Marconi, owned most of the transatlantic radio communications facilities in the USA. The idea was to make RCA the US version of Marconi so the US would never beholden to a foreign power or company again, especially in a time of war.

RCA was created by pooling many significant radio and technology patents and assets from Pan-American Telegraph, American Marconi and General Electric. The US Navy had taken over the Marconi stations in the USA during the war. The Navy turned these over to RCA. Patents from Westinghouse, AT&T and others came under the RCA shortly after RCA being created. Sarnoff became the head of RCA after all this took place.

Ironically, all these years later, the RCA name (and some of RCAs assets) is owned by a foreign company, Thompson of France.

Hi Steve,

You are corrrect in your statements.

I believe what Frank/AHE was perhaps suggesting was that Sarnoff was also responsible for the phenomenal long-term growth of the RCA, making it one of the most well known and respected electronics companies of all time. Under Sarnoff's reign, even during the Depression, the companys stock continued to grow, and he was responsible for guiding the RCA into many new markets and for rolling out many very significant technical developments, including:

-Improved optical sound-on-film recording and reproduction (AKA "talkies"), and the microphone and loudspeaker technology required for this. I think Sarnoff was the one who recruited Dr. Harry Olson for this effort.

-Hired Dr. Zworykin, who developed the image iconoscope and the kinescope whilst at the RCA. Both devices enabled the improvement of the existing performance of electronic television.

-Created the NBC, which of course provided the conduit for network radio and televsion broadcasting, and enabled the RCA to sell more of their radio and TV sets.

-Developed and brought to market electronic color television.

-Recognized the potential market for astro-electronics with the advent of the space-age, and started RCA Astro

In summary, as was stated earlier, Sarnoff was not a technical guy, but rather a very perceptive and prescient businessman. And yes, the man was a ruthless pr--k without doubt, in terms of the way he treated Armstrong, Farnsworth, amongst others, but he was not an a$$hole, unless someone wants to use the two terms (pr--ck and a$$hole) interchangeably. As I had also stated earlier, he ran RCA according to what he believed was in the best interests of the company and it's shareholders, and his shareholders were very appreciative of that. RCA did not believe in paying royalties to anyone. It pained Sarnoff and the RCA that they had to pay royalties to Farnsworth for several of his patented inventions relating to electronic television, because RCA needed access to the technology to further their development efforts with respect to this.

It was a crime how Sarnoff sucessfully petitioned the FCC to move the original FM broadcast band, so as to deprive Armstrong of the Yankee Network and to obsolete all of the FM receivers that had been built to date. And it pained Sarnoff that the FCC approved FM for the aural portion of commercial TV broadcasting; the original RCA system used AM for the sound.

However, most of the people who worked for him, at least based upon my reading about the life of Sarnoff, highly respected the man and were proud to have worked for him.

73,

Bruce

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Very true. It helped that RCA was a monopoly, at least until 1933, after which GE and Westinghouse could compete in the radio market.

[WQ9E]

Sarnoff didn't invent lousy ethical behavior but he certainly provided copious examples of it.  You can definitely provide "value" to shareholders if you can get away with numerous behaviors including cheating others. 

The good old A&P grocery store chain grew rapidly during the same era by going into small towns and undercutting the grocery prices of mom and pop stores and then greatly increasing prices once the competition was run out of business.  The profit from these towns was then used to finance the same practice in new areas and it allowed for incredibly rapid growth. Of course when you do something that most people feel is wrong it generally is made illegal. The Robinson Patman act was often referred to as the "anti A&P act" because it was clearly aimed specifically at that chain's business practices although it applied to everyone.  It is also a prime example of a law that wasn't very successful in its original intent but is still on the books and causes far more problems than it solves.  Reagan supreme court nominee Robert Bork may have had shortcomings but he clearly understood the problems of Robinson Patman.

Unfortunately for Armrstrong, Farnsworth, Tesla, and others it is impossible to implement an "anti jackass" act.

Although General Electric received historical credit for creating the marketing concept in the 1950's it was espoused by Sarnoff in his speech and writing much earlier.  In short form it calls for a company to discern and meet customer wants and needs in a profitable manner as being the best course to corporate happiness.  Given the way Sarnoff treated many of his contemporaries I wouldn't bet upon his loving or caring for customers but he certainly understood them.

[WA1GFZ]

George Westinghouse had the respect of Tesla which is good enough for me.

[W2XR]

Very true. It helped that RCA was a monopoly, at least until 1933, after which GE and Westinghouse could compete in the radio market.

Hi Steve,

But did'nt Western Electric/AT & T hold most of the patents for vacuum tube technology, and they licensed the rights to these patents to the RCA, Cunningham, GE, Westinghouse, and others?

I recall that by agreement WE was limited to a maximum aggregate production of 500,000 tubes per year in perpetuity, but somehow most other tube manufacturers were able to provide unlimited production quanitites, obviously much to their advantage.

I'm just wondering how RCA and the others fit into this arrangement with WE?

If anyone would know, it would most likely be you!

73,

Bruce

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I'd have to dig out my book on the history of WE. I'm guessing the licensing and patent pooling was not the same across each company (WE, Westinghouse, etc) and RCA.

It would also be instructive to know the tube production levels pre-WWII. I'm betting things opened up for many other manufacturers when the war hit.

Also, RCA did not have a complete monopoly on tubes. You've probably heard of the coup Collins pulled when they used Goddard's patent(s) on tubes and/or oscillator design to produce transmitters without RCA licensing.

[W2XR]

I'd have to dig out my book on the history of WE. I'm guessing the licensing and patent pooling was not the same across each company (WE, Westinghouse, etc) and RCA.

It would also be instructive to know the tube production levels pre-WWII. I'm betting things opened up for many other manufacturers when the war hit.

Also, RCA did not have a complete monopoly on tubes. You've probably heard of the coup Collins pulled when they used Goddard's patent(s) on tubes and/or oscillator design to produce transmitters without RCA licensing.

Hi Steve,

I have often wondered if the ceiling on WE tube production was temporarily lifted during the Second World War.

I suspect not. A great deal of equipment WE built under contract to the Government during the duration utilized vacuum tubes manufactured by companies other than WE. By the same token, a lot of this equipment may have been build-to-print, in which case WE was forced to use whatever components and component suppliers (in this case, tubes) were specified within the bill of materials.

Again, I'd be curious. I have no idea as to how I'd ever find this kind of arcane information. Not the most important bit of electronics trivia in the world, that's for sure.

73,

Bruce