Allen B. DuMont
American electronics engineer and inventor (1901-1965)
Allen Balcom DuMont (; January 29, 1901 – November 14, 1965) was an American electronics engineer, scientist, and inventor who improved the cathode-ray tube in 1931 for use in television receivers. Seven years later he manufactured and sold the first commercially practical television set to the public. In June 1938, his Model 180 television receiver was the first all-electronic television set sold to the public, a few months prior to RCA's first TV set in April 1939. In 1946, DuMont founded the first television network to be licensed, the DuMont Television Network, by linking station WABD (named for DuMont, later becoming WNEW and then WNYW) in New York City to station W3XWT, which later became WTTG, in Washington, D.C. WTTG was named for Thomas T. Goldsmith, DuMont's Vice President of Research, and his best friend. DuMont's successes in television picture tubes, TV sets and components and his involvement in commercial TV broadcasting made him the first millionaire in the business.
Biography
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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Allen B. DuMont” as american electronics engineer and inventor (1901-1965). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1423842. VIAF identifies the subject as 52774807. The Library of Congress control number is n96036737. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1965, 1931 and 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “Allen B. DuMont” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.