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It’s Been Done Before – Part Two What Is The Origin Of (100)?…

There Ain’t ‘Alf Some Clever Bastards – Part Sixty

Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890 – 1954)

Before the arrival of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) what revolutionised the quality of radio signals was the switch to Frequency Modulation (FM) from Amplitude Modulation (AM). Gone for the most part were those irritating hisses from extraneous noises which affected and spoiled an AM radio programme. The battle to get FM adopted was long and hard and eventually did for its inventor, the latest inductee to our Hall of Fame, Edwin Armstrong.

In the mid 1920s Armstrong began researching into ways to eliminate the static that bedevilled AM radio, initially by modifying the characteristics of existing AM transmissions with little success, before in 1928 turning to investigate the use of frequency modulation transmissions. Working away in a laboratory in Columbia’s Philosophy Hall, he developed what is now known as wide-band FM which had significant advantages over the previously developed narrow-band transmissions. He was granted five US patents on 26th December 1933 on the basic features of his new system. That was the easy part.

Armstrong had a standing arrangement with RCA to give them first refusal on his patents and whilst they were impressed, were investing in the nascent television technology and so declined the opportunity. Undaunted he decided to finance his own development and form ties with smaller players in the radio industry like Zenith and General Electric. In June 1936 Armstrong demonstrated his new system to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in front of an audience of 500 engineers, by playing a jazz record through conventional AM radio frequencies and then through FM. A contemporary noted “if the audience..had shut their eyes they would have believed the jazz band was in the same room. There were no extraneous sounds”.

But, as you would expect with an inductee, Armstrong hit major problems. Firstly, a switch-over to the ultra-high frequency system would mean scrapping all the existing broadcasting equipment and domestic radios, an expense which for America just emerging from the Great Depression was unpalatable. Then when interest in FM grew amongst some of the radio stations, construction restrictions that were put in place during the Second World War limited its growth. And then to prevent interference between radio stations that were early adopters of FM and the mainstream AM stations the FCC reallocated the FM band – to 88 to 108 Mhz – which meant that the FM equipment and receivers had to be scrapped. Armstrong saw the dead hand of RCA behind the attempts to frustrate the adoption of FM.

Armstrong’s fourth problem was his battle with RCA. In 1940 they had offered him $1 million for a non-exclusive, royaIty-free licence to use his FM patents but Armstrong turned them down. This prompted RCA to conduct their own research into FM and develop what they claimed to be a system which didn’t infringe Armstrong’s patents. Worse still, RCA encouraged other companies to stop paying royalties to Armstrong. In 1948, our hero sued RCA and NBC, claiming patent infringement and that they “had deliberately set out to oppose and impair the value” of his invention.

The case dragged on depleting Armstrong’s finances, worsened when his primary patents expired in late 1950. It all got too much for him and during the night of 31st January/1st February 1954 Armstrong jumped to his death from a window of his flat on the 13th floor of River House in New York City. His wife, Marion, pursued the case against RCA and reached an out of court settlement of around $1m. It was not until the 1960s that FM started to get really established in America, although NASA adopted Armstrong’s system for communications between Houston and the Apollo astronauts.

Edwin, for developing FM and not profiting from it, you are a worthy inductee into our Hall of Fame.

If you enjoyed this, why not try Fifty Clever Bastards by Martin Fone which is now available on Amazon in Kindle format and paperback. For details follow the link https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=fifty+clever+bastards