Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc. (printed on products as Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc., commonly referred to as DuMont Laboratories, shortened to DuMont Labs; referred to on company documents as DuMont) was an American
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
equipment manufacturer and broadcasting company. At one point it owned TV stations
WABD
WABD (97.5 FM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Mobile, Alabama. The station, established in 1973 as WABB-FM, is owned and operated by Cumulus Media. Its studios are on Dauphin Street in Midtown Mobile, and it ...
(now WNYW;
FOX O&O),
KCTY (defunct; DuMont affiliate), W2XVT (experimental; defunct; DuMont affiliate), KE2XDR (experimental; defunct; DuMont affiliate), &
WDTV (now KDKA-TV;
CBS O&O), as well as
WTTG (FOX O&O), all former affiliates of its defunct
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
.
The company was founded in 1931, in
Upper Montclair
Upper Montclair is a census-designated place (CDP), unincorporated community and neighborhood within Montclair in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population for the CDP was 11,565. , by inventor
Allen B. DuMont, with its headquarters in nearby
Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
* Clifton (surname)
* Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
*Clifton, Queensland, a town
** Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
* Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
* Clifton, Nova Sc ...
. Among the company's developments were durable
cathode ray tubes (CRTs) that would be used for TV and its
magic eye tube.
History
In 1938, DuMont Labs began manufacturing televisions at a factory in nearby
Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...
.
To sell TVs, it began the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
in 1942, one of the earliest TV networks. Later, they manufactured cameras and transmitters for TV. DuMont equipment was known for its high quality. The main CRT factory was in
Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area. A ...
. It made black and white TV tubes as well as instrumentation and military fire control tubes in the early 1950s.
In 1956, under the ownership of Paramount, DuMont Labs shuttered the network and spun off WABD & WTTG to "
DuMont Broadcasting Corporation". Eventually, the company was renamed "Metropolitan Broadcasting Company" in order to distance itself from the DuMont branding, which was seen as a failure. In 1958,
John Kluge bought
Paramount's stake in Metropolitan Broadcasting, renaming it to
Metromedia.
DuMont's partner,
Thomas T. Goldsmith, remained on Metromedia's board of directors until the stations were sold to the
Fox Television Stations Group. Nearly every original DuMont television program is considered lost, and presumed destroyed. Only roughly 100 recordings of any DuMont series have been recovered.
DuMont Labs eventually sold its TV manufacturing division to
Emerson Radio
Emerson Radio Corporation is one of the United States' largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. The company designs, markets, and licenses many product lines worldwide, i ...
in 1958. The remainder of the company merged into
Fairchild Camera in 1960.
Fairchild later developed
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
microchip
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
s.
Robert Noyce, founder of
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
, originally worked for DuMont Labs as an engineer.
DuMont Labs TVs outside the US were assembled under license in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, Quebec, Canada by
Canadian Aviation Electronics, currently a manufacturer of
flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they re ...
and pilot training equipment.
Name ownership
On April 18, 2012, a US federal trademark registration was filed for "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." by Alan Levin of
Cabin John, Maryland. The description provided to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for it is "Antennas for radio, for television; Electrical and optical cables; Electronic and optical communications instruments and components".
However, by June 5, 2020, the trademark registration for "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." by Mr. Levin had lapsed, with the status having changed to "CONTINUED USE NOT FILED WITHIN GRACE PERIOD, UN-REVIVABLE", resulting in the trademark no longer being active,
with a search on the
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...
website for the "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." trademark confirming the trademark's status as "DEAD".
See also
*
Metromedia
* ''
Passaic: Birthplace of Television and the DuMont Story''
References
{{Reflist
External links
Dumont Experimental Color CRTsat the Early Television Museum
photo at Greater Boston, June 2005 gallery of broadcasting equipment. Also available i
Description and index of entire gallery.
Companies based in Passaic County, New Jersey
DuMont Television Network
Television in the United States
Mass media in New Jersey
Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
1938 establishments in New Jersey
1956 disestablishments in New Jersey
Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey
category:Defunct television broadcasting companies of the_United_States