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Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr.

Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. Pioneer of television technology 1910-2009. “Nowhere so besy a man as he ther was, And yit he semide besier than he was.”. Presented by: Catherine Mary Pat Emma Lyne. The Birth of a Pioneer. *Thomas Goldsmith Jr. was born on

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Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr.

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  1. Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. Pioneer of television technology 1910-2009 “Nowhere so besy a man as he ther was, And yit he semide besier than he was.”

  2. Presented by: Catherine Mary Pat Emma Lyne

  3. The Birth of a Pioneer *Thomas Goldsmith Jr. was born on January 9,1910 *He was the younger of two sons, Thomas and Charlotte Manley Goldsmith. *His father was an insurance and real estate broker and his mother was a concert pianist. *As a teenager he was interested in building crystal radio sets. *His nickname was “Doc” . *He married Helen Elizabeth Wilcox and had three children, Judson Wilcox Goldsmith, Thomas Goldsmith III, and Virginia G. Beekmann. *They were married for 70 years. *He has six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

  4. *He sang bass in the Glee Club and played the violin in the orchestra. *In the school play H.M.S. Pinafore, Goldsmith played the character Dick Deadeye, an able seaman. *He received the superlative Best Musician and graduated salutatorian *He was a member of the Wilson Club, Lee Literary Society, Music Club, Orchestra, Glee Club, Honor Club, Leaders Corps, Nautilus Staff, Store Assistant, and a member of the Athletic Association. Raider Class of 1927

  5. Burns1927 The mortal life of Robert Burns is sad, But yet it is with great achievement filled; He strove to conquer all which he was willed To meet in the wild world of good and bad. Tho’ forced to write to earn his daily bread, He could not others rule, nor he be ruled; Yet all his works by critics now are held A those of one of our most honored dead. From this, all men should learn a lesson true: The greatest man is he does best, E’en tho’ he may be hidden far from view And’s never known in life by all the rest; By striving patiently his best to do, His works will stand the most exacting test. *poem from his years at Greenville High School

  6. Goldsmith’s Quest for Knowledge • He • became • an applied • electricity • instructor • in physics at • Cornell • and Furman • presented • him with an • honorary • LLD. • After graduating from Greenville High, Goldsmith continued his education at Furman University, where he graduated in 1931. • He then attended Cornell University, where he received his PhD in 1937 in physics.

  7. He joined the Allen DuMont Laboratories in 1936 and became the Director of Research for 30 years, and the treasurer of Allen B. Dumont Foundation. The Laboratory began in his garage of his home and then later was moved to a former pickle factory in Passaic, New Jersey. During this time he pioneered cathode ray tubes, oscillographs, TV receivers, transmitters, TV cameras, radar systems, fiber optics, and the sonar & space exploration with NASA. He became WWII chairmen of committee to assure the industry of cathode ray tubes in RADAR & other military applications would continue. He was a member of the first National Television Systems Committee, which was established in 1940. He also supervised developments of precision RADAR units and field studies of TV station coverage. “DuMont and Goldsmith helped pioneer turning oscilloscopes into full television displays.”

  8. April 30, 1939, World’s Fair in Queens, people crowed around DuMont Television to watch President F.D.R.’s speech, which was made possible by Thomas Goldsmith and Thomas DuMont.

  9. Creations of the Stations Thomas Goldsmith helped establish the TV station WABD in New York, which started commercial broadcasting and in 1955 became part of Metromedia Inc. • By 1947 three TV stations had been made • WABD in New York • WDTV in Pittsburgh • WTTG in Washington( now part of Fox network).

  10. Crash of DuMont Televison Network • The DuMont Television Network closed in 1955 because of a lack of interest in sales for their television sets which had helped keep the company alive. • Five years later, the laboratory merged with Fairchild Camera. • Because of this incident Goldsmith never got to make a huge impact on the television industry that now is the center of our world.

  11. Making His Idea a Reality • In 1947 he received patent No. 2,455,992. • This patent created the first video game which allowed a player to shoot down a created image of an airplane with a beam. • It could not be created because of a lack of monetary support behind the idea. • This was made possible, but after Goldsmith left DuMont Laboratories.

  12. Later Years • Thomas Goldsmith then returned to Furman University and became a Physics professor from 1966-1986. • Goldsmith used to watch the bell tower at Furman University.

  13. The End of the Road • Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. passed away in his home in Lacy, Washington on March 5, 2009. He was 99 years old. • Hid death was caused due to complications after a hip fracture. • His memorial service was held March 15, 2009 at the United Churches of Olympia at 1:30 pm. • He had memorial donations made to Providence Home Care and Hospice or United Churches of Olympia.

  14. Goldsmith in his later years. Above: Goldsmith watching his creation. Left: Part of the creation of Goldsmith’s video game. Below: Goldsmith at DuMont Laboratories.

  15. Interview With Thomas Goldsmithcourtesy of www.youtube.comby Karen from Archive of American Television • Was it in high school or at Furman that you started to put some definition or focus on what you might like to do in the future? Actually in high school I wrote a paper in chemistry and won a prize and as a prize was two volumes on the life of Thomas Albert Edison. I was like, hum, I like this guy, I want to work for him, but he up and died on me before I finished graduate school. But I know Thomas Edison’s family and have been in the laboratories before in New Jersey.

  16. Was graduate school part of your plan while you were at Furman? When did you decide to keep going to school? Well Furman university is a liberal arts college and had an excellent science department and one of the people teaching in the science division was Professor Cox who had gone to Cornell University. He inspired me to go to Graduate school and I graduated form Furman in 1931( heart of depression). I saved up 250 bucks as a newspaper carrier. 250 bucks and me went up to Cornell for five years and I got my degree in Physics. I found that my level of Physics instruction at Furman was limited, so my whole first year was taking undergraduate courses to catch up. I had a wonderful professor named Frederick Bedell. I was on the faculty as a student assistant at Furman and as well at Cornell.

  17. Explain why television receivers don’t have a channel one. Channels 2 - 13 are called the VHF channels, a low frequency group and a high frequency group. The early days it was channel one. Nowadays we didn’t want to upset the numbering, so we just abandoned channel one.

  18. It’s 1936 and you are hired by Allen Dumont as his 14th employee. Tell me a little bit about the working conditions during the depression. In 1936 the hours were fairly normal 30 or 40 hours a week with an income of 35 dollars a week which was typical during these days. Allen and I were busy building cathode ray tubes and one of our assignments was to take these instruments out to schools and teach these professors the use of cathode ray tubes. We would do that as an introduction for 2 purposes: 1. to know how to use these in their electronic research 2. this someday would be a device called television. In 1931 Dumont got basic patents on cathode ray tubes to such a degree that he had a patent back log to developing not only instruments but radar systems and all kinds of electronic devices for medical applications. This work was being done in the little hatch shop when I first started working we took on all three of those little buildings and my brother joined me at that time and helped with building cathode ray tubes.

  19. Bibliography • Department of Geosciences | Idaho State University. 13 May 2009 <http://geology.isu.edu/geostac/Field_Exercise/wildfire/images/Prescribed-Burn.jpg>. • "Dr. Thomas Goldsmith, Jr. Has Died-- Archive Interview Online." Archive of American Television. 13 May 2009 <http://tvinterviewsarchive.blogspot.com/2009/03/dr-thomas-goldsmith-jr-has-died-archive.html>. • GAIHN, Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network, Carriage Rides - Downtown Greenville, SC - Home Page. 13 May 2009 <http://www.gaihn.org/images/Paladins.jpg>. • Greenville High School Yearbook 1927 • Home Page Kidshow.dcmemories.com. 13 May 2009 <http://dcmemories.com/DrTTGJr/ThomasGoldsmithJrWTTG_DUA.JPG>. • IEEE - the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. 13 May 2009 <http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/aboutus/history_center/oral_history/pdfs/Goldsmith008.pdf>. • "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 13 May 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/television/15goldsmith.html>. • Westchestercce / FrontPage. 13 May 2009 <http://westchestercce.pbworks.com/f/CUCE%20ONLY-1106.gif>. • "YouTube - Thomas Goldsmith - Archive Interview Part 1 of 9." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 17 May 2009 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npNfOikMMFA&feature=PlayList&p=EA25DDD10B3966DB&index=0>.

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