WEBVTT - Edwin Howard Armstrong 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.000 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:15.480 Frye and I'm Tracy V. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:16.000 Wilson. 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:18.760 So I'm a little bit on an inventor kick again 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.360 at the moment, So yah, get ready for more in 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:26.759 the coming weeks. Today's inventor is somebody I stumbled across 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:28.840 and I kind of marveled at having never heard of 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.920 him because he worked in a field that I have 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.120 studied many of the other people. Little did I know 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.800 that I was walking into a hotbed of science, legal drama. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.400 And then I got excited, But then I got bummed 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.320 because I also was way too deep into this one 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:48.760 to switch gears when I discovered the very very bummer 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.000 part of this story. So we are going to give 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.560 a trigger warning as we approach that very bummer part. 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.240 And as usual, it's not something we're going to linger 0:00:58.280 --> 0:00:59.800 on or spend a lot of time on. But there 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:04.400 is a death by suicide in this episode. So Edwin 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.560 Howard Armstrong is not exactly a well known inventor, but 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.920 his work in radio literally changed communications around the globe. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.039 I think we could also say we might not have 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.520 our jobs if he didn't do what he did, Yeah, 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.640 because we work for a company that does a lot 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.600 of radio. His most famous invention, which was FM radio, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.400 became a source of constant frustration for him though after 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.520 he had developed it. So we're going to talk about 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.440 various inventions. We will give some basic layman's explanations, but 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.120 in terms of breaking them down in terms of how 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.600 they work at the nitty gritty level. If you want that, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:42.479 you got to go somewhere else for it. I'm sorry. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.039 And as we'll see in the course of the story, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.480 people not understanding the way things work scientifically, and particularly 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.120 electrical engineering and radio, caused a lot of problems for 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.840 Armstrong in his life. Edwin Howard Armstrong was born to 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.960 Number eighteenth eighteen ninety in New York City in the 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.480 Chelsea neighborhood. His father, John, worked in publishing for Oxford 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.160 University Press, and his mother, Emily, had been a school 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.799 teacher until she married John. Like a lot of kids 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.160 born in the late nineteenth century, Edwin was fascinated by 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:22.320 all the modern technology around him, particularly as a child 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.520 growing up in Manhattan, where a lot of the latest 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.480 technology quickly found a lot of use He loved trains 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.440 and just about anything mechanical. His family moved to Yonkers, 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.600 New York when he was fourteen. He was always really 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:40.200 curious about science and scientists, but it was the news 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.519 of the first wireless message sent across the Atlantic by 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.799 Italian physicist Gulielmo Marconi that really got Armstrong excited and 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.760 set him down what would be his path in life. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.800 Edwin Armstrong was so inspired by Marconi's invention that he 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:01.880 decided that he too, wanted to invent the things. Edwin 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.239 was a shy kid. Also, I should point out that 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.800 I have seen some biographies that referred to him as Howard, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.280 which was his middle name. I don't know which he 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.640 went by. We're going by Edwin just because that is 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.840 his first name. We may be incorrect in that, but 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.239 he was either way a shy kid, and he readily 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.960 became absorbed in electrical and radio projects that he could 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.480 work on on his own. He apparently turned the family 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.720 attic into like his own lab, which he used for 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.560 years and years. Because unlike a lot of kids, he 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.880 did not lose interest in these efforts, and he did 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.360 not move on to other things. He retained his passion 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.960 for tinkering and discovery his whole life. He did do 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.000 other things as a teenager, like he played tennis, but 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.760 the drive to invent that was ever present. He built 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.600 crystal sets so basic radio receivers up in that attic 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.280 that could only pick up Morse code. There was really 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.680 nothing else for them to capture, and the weak's signal 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.240 that he was able to get on those crystal sets 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.560 made him intent that he should figure out how to 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:02.160 boost it. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.040 After finishing his studies at Yonkers High School in nineteen 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.920 oh nine, Armstrong enrolled at Columbia University in the Engineering School. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.680 Part of the reason he went to Columbia was that 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.320 it was close to home, he could commute to school, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.560 and he wouldn't have to break down any of his 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.800 ongoing experiments and projects that were underway in the family's attic. 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.960 Radio in particular, had become a big focus of Edwin's 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.240 curiosity and work. He noted later of choosing to concentrate 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.640 his energies in this field. Quote somehow, for reasons I 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:39.880 cannot recollect, the decision favored wireless. Now, of course, radio 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.640 in nineteen oh nine was not really a thing in 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.320 the sense that we would consider it Now, this is 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.760 when telegraphy and Morse code were still kind of at 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.640 the forefront. No one was sending sound across airwaves, but 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.800 they were very close. The first radio broadcast happened on 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:01.400 January thirteenth, nineteen ten, when an inv named Lee DeForest 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.200 broadcast a week signal from the New York Metropolitan Opera 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.520 house of Enrico Caruso singing. So not only was radio 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.680 an entirely new concept for Armstrong to jump into, but 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.800 some of its most exciting developments were happening in the 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.200 city where he was working on his own projects and 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.400 going to school. DeForest had invented a device called an 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.800 audion in nineteen oh six, and he patented that in 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.680 nineteen oh seven. The audion was a radio tube DeForest 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.240 had built on work that had been in process for 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.560 a while to get this tube to work. It consisted 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.240 of a cathode filament, an anodeplate, and a wire that 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.120 sat between the two. If you look at a photograph 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.800 of one of the first audions, you'll see what looks 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.320 like a light bulb with wires coming out of it. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.839 The current between the filament and the anodeplate could be 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.440 modulated using that wire. Called a grid and that could 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:02.480 amplify sound. And while it worked, it did not work great. Additionally, 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.960 DeForest is sometimes described as having arrived at his invention 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.320 strictly through experimentation. He didn't really have a firm enough 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.560 grasp on the electrical science at play to explain why 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:15.360 this worked. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.200 This is going to come up again later. But here's 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.159 the thing. Edwin Armstrong did understand the science, or at 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.480 least he was determined that he was going to figure 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.159 it out. This time in Armstrong's life was written about 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.160 by J. H. Moorcroft in nineteen twenty two in an 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.520 article titled What Everyone Should Know about Radio History. The 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.120 section on Edwin includes the following quote. He was not 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.919 an especially brilliant student. In fact, in many of his 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:48.040 courses he did rather poorly. The writer knows because Armstrong 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.039 was one of his students. The characteristics of alternating current 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.440 machinery in general did not prove very enticing to the 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.760 young student, not because he was lazy or indifferent, but 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.159 because he had a hobby and a vision. He was 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.599 experimenting at his home with wireless apparatus and trying to 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.960 find out how the three electrode audion of DeForest worked. 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.320 If DeForest confessed in public that the action was too 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.840 mysterious for him to explain, then Armstrong would explain it 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.680 for him, which he promised to do and did very shortly. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.160 That very shortly was no joke. Edwin had it all 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.720 figured out when he was still a college student. He 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.280 was able to invent a circuit that created much more 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:35.240 robust amplification. Armstrong had figured out during school break that 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.160 he could run a signal through the audion and then 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.000 back into its input to create what he called positive feedback. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.400 His resulting circuit was called a regenerative circuit, sometimes also 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.800 called a feedback circuit, and it worked by a reported 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.760 factor of thousands. Then Armstrong realized that if he turned 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.040 his regenerative circuit to its highest level of amplification, it 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.400 became an oscillator and its own waves in or the words, 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:07.240 it was a broadcasting transmitter. This early success had been 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.760 made possible in part by Armstrong's mentor, a man named 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.320 Michael Pupin, who was a professor in the electrical engineering 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.720 department and who had seen something really special in Armstrong. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.680 Poupin had allowed the student to use his lab. He 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.160 had recognized the reasons that the regular curriculum failed to 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.440 interest Armstrong, and he was also Edwin's champion when it 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.880 came to other professors at school and administrators who thought 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.079 he was just being arrogant or that he wouldn't apply himself. 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:38.400 Coming up, we'll. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.960 Talk about Armstrong's first hurtle of many in his career, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.800 and that was paying for a patent application. But first 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.520 we will take a quick sponsor break. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.760 Naturally, Armstrong wanted to file a patent now application for 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.400 his invention of this circuit, and he asked his father 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.680 for help with the money for the application fee, but 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.280 John Armstrong refused, voicing concerns that he didn't want his 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.719 son to get sidetracked from finishing his education. Edwin was 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.080 really disheartened by his father's response, but he was also 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.720 an undeterred. He just turned to other family members and 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.280 even friends for money, and he promised that he would 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:29.480 repay them for any financial help they could offer. And 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.720 then he also had to sell his bike that was 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.760 how he commuted to school. But to him, all of 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.160 this was worth it. He filed his patent application in 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.960 nineteen thirteen, the same year he graduated from Columbia. Armstrong 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.320 was immediately offered a position as an assistant at Columbia, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.040 and as an employee, he was able to install a 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.440 large demonstration antenna on campus to show Poopen and others 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.600 just how powerful his regenerative circuit was. He reportedly picked 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.199 up signals from as far away Hawaii with it. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.800 During World War One, Armstrong's reputation in the science community 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.240 landed him in Paris, where he worked for the US 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.760 Army Signal Corps. In a lab there in Europe, he 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:17.640 invented another circuit, the superheterodyne radio circuit, also called a superhead. 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.200 A superhead circuit changes a radio signal frequency from the 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.120 frequency it's received at to a lower frequency using a 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.800 mixer and oscillator. This results in an output that can 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:34.360 be more effectively filtered and processed. In terms of war applications, 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.400 this meant that weak signals could be cleared of background 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.480 noise and amplified. Armstrong had been allowed to use the 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.720 Eiffel Tower as part of his experimentation. Today, the superhead 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.280 is still a massive part of daily communications all over 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:54.720 the globe. In nineteen fourteen, Armstrong received his patent, but 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.240 the very young Armstrong did not have a lot of 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.560 time to be happy about it before he found that 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.760 he had a much older detractor of his work in 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:07.679 Lee DeForest. DeForest had actually seen one of Armstrong's demonstrations 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.120 and had seen how Armstrong's work had made his audion 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.280 truly function as an amplifier, but in his opinion, that 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.240 meant that he DeForest should be the one to get credit. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.400 For a decade and a half, these two men would 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.240 go back and forth in papers, public statements, and after 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.920 the war lawsuits over who should get credit for inventing 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:34.679 the regenerative circuit. DeForest's argument was that from the beginning 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.640 he had heard what he described as a howling sound 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:43.240 in his audion, and he realized after seeing Armstrong's demonstration 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.480 that he had accidentally created positive feedback. This assertion was 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.640 not really supported by any of DeForest's own writing about 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:56.000 his invention. Prior to having seen Armstrong's work, he never 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.720 made any notes about a howling noise or mentioned it 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.959 to anybody, But he decided that he also needed to 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.480 file patent applications for what he claimed was his invention. 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.640 This resulted in Armstrong's patent being held in stasis for 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.440 a while as things were hopefully going to get sorted out. 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.440 But they did not sort out. They got a lot 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:16.360 more contentious. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.640 So recall that DeForest had publicly stated that he couldn't 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.679 really explain how his audion worked, and Armstrong, on the 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.680 other hand, had completely grasped the science he had. As 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.840 this rivalry was heating up, written papers about how his 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.760 regenerative circuit worked and changed the function of the audion. 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.160 There are pages and pages of back and forth between 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.880 the two men in the proceedings of the Institute of 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.120 Radio Engineers, after Armstrong had published a paper titled a 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:52.319 Study of Heterodyne Amplification by the Electron Relay. In one letter, 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.560 DeForest states, quote, I doubt if the simplicity of mister 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:00.280 Armstrong's explanations of audion phenomena is satisfying to those who 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.400 have extensively experimented with the audion. He then goes on 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.520 to reference a number of behavioral phenomena of the device 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.520 that Armstrong's work cannot explain, but they seem kind of 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.840 like outliers or malfunctions, including one where all of the 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:19.679 electrodes became incandescent. He then writes, quote, these are experimental 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.040 facts and not theory, and mister Armstrong must search more 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:28.199 deeply before the ultimate explanation of audion phenomena is revealed, 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.960 which honestly sounds like he almost thinks it's kind of magical. 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.520 He just does not understand what's happening, and he also 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:40.319 states that Armstrong was misinterpreting some of his writing. In response, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:45.120 Armstrong wrote, quote in reference to doctor DeForest's discussion, I 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.120 feel that he must have failed in some way to 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.160 understand the present paper, because his discussion clearly seems to 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.280 apply not to the present paper, but to some of 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.880 the more fundamental and elementary matters which were published by 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.120 me several years ago. Part of a problem, he notes, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.199 is that he Armstrong had backed another scientist, Fleming, when 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.840 DeForest had claimed that he had also infringed on one 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.720 of his ideas. It seemed that DeForest felt like everyone 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.720 was stealing his work. Things got really heated when the 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:22.160 AT and T company, which had purchased DeForest patents, got involved. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:27.600 This is when the lawsuits began. Armstrong won some judgments 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.720 initially and then lost on appeal, and then additional suits 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.120 were filed and appealed, and on and on for fourteen 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.680 years from nineteen twenty to nineteen thirty four. This case 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.720 went before the Supreme Court twice. In testimony, it was 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.040 completely obvious to everyone that DeForest did not understand the 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.840 science behind his own invention the audion, But in the end, 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.200 a lack of understanding about the science and how it 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.440 was described in the patents led to the Supreme Court 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.320 justices ruling in faise of DeForest. That was something the 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.200 scientific community was outraged about. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.440 Perhaps most damning for DeForest was the fact that the 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.800 Institute of Radio Engineers did not recognize the court's decision. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.440 The organization had given their medal of honor to Armstrong 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.400 several years before the final court battle, but when the 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:25.120 decision came down, Armstrong attempted to return it during one 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.920 of the group's annual meetings. He was instead met with 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.760 a standing ovation and a refusal to accept that return. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.320 The entire engineering community, and especially those who had worked 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:43.560 in sciences related to radio, backed Armstrong publicly. So DeForest 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.240 may have won that case, but he became an outcast 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.040 in his industry in the process. Armstrong continued to be 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:54.480 honored with awards for his work on the regenerative circuit as. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.880 All of this was playing out. After World War One, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.480 Armstrong had gone back to Columbia. He worked for physicist 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.480 Michael Pupin as his assistant. Pupin, as we had mentioned earlier, 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.720 had been one of Armstrong's teachers, and Edwin had just 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.960 immense respect for him. Armstrong also sold the patent rights 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:16.360 for the superheterodyne receiver as the radio boom was beginning 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.240 in the nineteen twenties, and as a consequence, he found 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:24.320 himself very wealthy very quickly, with ongoing income from stock 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.520 that had been included in those patent purchase deals. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.000 He also got married after the war. While working in Europe, 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.800 Edwin met a woman named Marian McInnis. She was working 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.800 as the secretary of a man named David Sarnoff, who 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.520 was a friend of Edwin's from Columbia and would later 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.400 go on to found the Radio Corporation of America or RCA. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.640 Armstrong gave Marion an early portable radio as a wedding gift, 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.720 and the two of them, by all accounts, were very happy. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:58.400 Together with his newfound millionaire status, Armstrong could have retired 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.320 early and just lived a life of leisure at that point, 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:06.199 but he didn't. He was still fascinated with radio, and 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.840 he was chasing a goal, which was radio without static. 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.639 He used his own money to pay for research on 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.000 the problem, which he tackled along with his mentor Poopem. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.720 He collected no salary from Columbia because he had worked 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.080 a deal where in working for free, he was able 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.000 to focus exclusively on his lab work and not have 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.120 to be bogged down in any of the trappings of academia. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.879 That meant no administrative duties, no teaching schedules. In nineteen 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.320 thirty three, Edwin Armstrong applied for four patents, all related 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.800 to the issue of eliminating static from radio waves. Prior 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.560 to this point, all radio was based on AM or 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.440 amplitude modulation. In an AM broadcast, the frequency is constant. 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.800 This is also called a carrier wave. The sound wave 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.320 the audio that's being transmitted, is added to that frequency 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.359 and the sound wave changes the amplitude of the wave. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.520 Amplitude is a measure of the strength or intensity of 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.000 a wave. Sometimes people will also call it a height, 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:10.800 but that's what they mean. So when you're tuning in 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.360 AM radio, you are tuning to the frequency that's assigned 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:18.080 to the broadcaster you wish to listen to. FM on 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:22.000 the other hand, modulates the frequency, so obviously FM stands 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.399 for frequency modulation. Those changes in frequency are what carry 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.120 the signal, and when they shift the output device that's 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.080 speakers get a hit of voltage that transmits the sound. 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.800 So a station's call number or frequency actually has some 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.040 play on either side of it to allow for those 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.440 shifts that trigger the sound. It is a more complicated process, 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.800 but the resulting sound is clearer an Armstrong's new system. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.560 With the modulated frequency of waves, the carrier wave was 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.560 more impervious to interference from things like electrical storms. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.560 We know today that Armstrong's invention did change communications, but 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.120 initially it did not seem destined for success, and we'll 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.879 talk about why after we hear from the sponsors that 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:19.120 keep stuff you missed in history class going. One might 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.560 expect that the superiority in fidelity that Armstrong's FM radio 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.760 was able to produce would be readily embraced. It sounded 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.919 so much better, But there were two problems. One was 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.919 that there was a belief in the science community, based 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.920 on some faulty science, that FM was not viable. They 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.840 thought Armstrong had actually been wasting his time. The other 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.399 problem was that even once its viability was apparent. It 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.920 ran into the issue that new technology is often met 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:53.040 with resistance, especially when it necessitates the need for new equipment, 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.560 and that was exactly what happened with FM. To prove 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.520 his FM radio worked, demonstrated it to the Institute of 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.119 Radio Engineers in nineteen thirty five. That gave them a 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.600 chance to hear this static free transmission from the remote 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.800 location of Yonkers. He demoed different kinds of sound. There 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.160 was speaking, of course, but. 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.840 Also live music and things like water being poured into 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.600 a glass. It was all clear as a bell, much 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.480 clearer than an AM transmission. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.200 That resistance that we mentioned a moment ago two FM's 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:31.240 adoption came quickly and aggressively. By the mid nineteen thirties, 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:35.000 there were already a lot of radio stations broadcasting AM radio, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.600 and none of them wanted word to get out that 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:42.320 there was a superior technology. Meanwhile, Armstrong was like, this 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.199 should be free to everybody. One of the early signs 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:47.520 that things were going to be really rough actually came 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.919 from his friend David Sarnoff. Saranov had started RCA at 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.640 this point, and Armstrong had promised RCA first look an 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.720 option for any inventions he created, and to help Armstrong 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.399 win his work, Sarnov had let the inventor use the 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.840 top of the newly completed Empire State Building as a 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:10.560 testing space. But when Armstrong started talking publicly about FM 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.119 radio and its benefits, Saranov told him to take his 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.160 equipment down and get off the Empire State Building. RCA 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.199 was already positioned against Armstrong legally at this point, the 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.639 company was involved in that series of patent cases against 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.639 him in court, but up until this point, Armstrong and 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.879 Sarnov had remained pretty friendly. Until the FM reveal. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.840 Some of the resistance against Armstrong's new form of radio 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:43.159 was fairly specific to time and place. This was in 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.359 the nineteen thirties, so the Great Depression is part of 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.399 the context of this. Industry leaders like Sarnoff, who knew 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.680 that Armstrong was working on the static problem, had anticipated 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.480 that he was going to come up with something that 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:02.359 improved on the existing A radio technology, which was also 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.440 tied to the very new development of television. So when 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.680 he showed up with a completely new system, it took 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.760 people by surprise. Companies were trepidacious about investing when the 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:19.000 markets were precarious. They believed that customers would be even 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:22.880 less willing to buy things like new radios when there 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.639 were already plenty of AM stations for them to listen 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.639 to on their existing radios. So while there was a 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.439 lot of pettiness in the mix, there were also some 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.840 legitimate financial and economic concerns. 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.160 In response to the mix of detractors and some people 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.280 who seemed to be just willfully ignoring his new tech. 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.399 Like he could not get people to write about this 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:51.600 new FM radio, Edwin Armstrong once again persisted he really 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.560 believed in FM and he knew it was far superior, 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.359 so he decided to build his own radio station to 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:03.760 prove it. Was of course very expensive. The total cost 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.840 of the construction, which took place over several years, was 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.760 estimated to have been around three hundred thousand dollars, which, 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.440 with that caveat that translating value over time is very imprecise, 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.000 the estimates put that at pretty close to seven million 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:21.199 dollars to day of his own personal money. And to 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:25.280 make matters worse, then, the Federal Communications Commission refused to 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.360 issue him a permit for it. In return, Armstrong told 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:31.880 the FCC that he would just move to another country 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.800 and let them lead the industry into static free broadcasting, 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.639 and after that he did get his license. In nineteen 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:43.399 thirty nine, he began broadcasting from the first FM radio station, 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:47.760 W two XMN, which he had built in Alpine, New Jersey. 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.440 Its signal traveled farther than the FCC had anticipated and 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:57.240 with clearer transmission than any AM station could manage. 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:01.159 The next year, RCA offered to buy ALFE since from Armstrong, 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:04.280 but he was only willing to issue them a royalties 0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:08.200 based offer, and things did not go well. As Armstrong 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:11.159 was ready to really start showing what FM could do. 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:15.240 The United States entered World War II. Because he was 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.680 still one of the foremost experts in the country regarding 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:22.840 wireless communication, he was once again needed for research duty 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:23.680 for the war. 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:27.040 Then, when the war was over Edwin returned to what 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:31.440 he considered his greatest achievement, FM, but things were only 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.679 getting worse in his battle to control the technology. After 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:38.880 he had turned down RCA's offer to buy a license, 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:41.640 the company had just gone right ahead and developed their 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:45.480