Peter Carl Goldmark (born Péter Károly Goldmark; December 2, 1906 – December 7, 1977) was a

Hungarian-American Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...

engineer who, during his time with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

, was instrumental in developing the long-playing microgroove 33 rpm phonograph disc, the standard for incorporating multiple or lengthy recorded works on a single disc for two generations. The LP was introduced by Columbia's Goddard Lieberson in 1948. Lieberson was later president of Columbia Records from 1956–71 and 1973–75. According to

György Marx György Marx (25 May 1927 – 2 December 2002) was a Hungarian physicist, astrophysicist, science historian and professor. He discovered the lepton numbers and established the law of lepton flavor conservation. Life He was the first non-Briti ...

, he was one of The Martians.

Early life

Goldmark married Frances Trainer, whom he later divorced. Together they had four children; three sons: Peter Jr., Christopher, Andrew and one daughter: Frances.

Career

In addition to his work on the LP record, Goldmark developed field-sequential color technology for

color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

while at CBS. The system, first demonstrated on August 29, 1940, and shown to the press on September 3 used a rapidly rotating color wheel that alternated transmission in red, green and blue. The system transmitted on 343 lines, about 100 less than a black and white set, and at a different field scan rate, and thus was incompatible with television sets currently on the market without an adapter. Although CBS did broadcast in color with the Goldmark system in 1950–1951, the "compatible color" technology developed for RCA and NBC (by a team led by Richard Kell, George H. Brown and others) was compatible with existing black and white TVs. Goldmark and others have pointed out that the CBS color wheel system did provide better picture quality (although lower image resolution) than RCA's system, but the compatibility problem proved its downfall. An improved RCA/NBC color system submitted in July 1953 became the industry standard chosen by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) in December 1953. Ironically, cameras using the color wheel system continued to be used for scientific research for several more decades, including the color lunar surface TV cameras during all the 1970s NASA Apollo moon landings. After the success of the LP record, Goldmark spent the next two decades at CBS Laboratories working on various inventions, chief of which was EVR, the Electronic Video Recorder. This futuristic home video playback device used reels of film stored in plastic cassettes to electronically store audio and video signals, and was first announced in 1967. A B&W prototype was demonstrated in 1969 (promising color playback in future models), but the invention floundered when it proved to be difficult and costly to manufacture. CBS was also concerned about the potential of competition from home video devices, particularly those that could record — a fear that eventually proved prescient.

Later life

Goldmark was awarded the

Elliott Cresson Medal The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. The ...

in 1969. He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1970. On November 22, 1977, President Jimmy Carter presented Goldmark with the National Medal of Science "For contributions to the development of the communication sciences for education, entertainment, culture, and human service." Goldmark died at the age of 71 in an automobile accident on December 7, 1977, in

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

References

General references

* Coleman, Mark (2005) ''PLAYBACK: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines and Money'', Published by Da Capo Press () *Fisher and Fisher, "The Color War", ''Invention and Technology'' (Winter 1997) * Goldmark, Peter (1973) ''Maverick Inventor: My Turbulent Years at CBS'', published by

Saturday Review Press ''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, ess ...

() * Reitan, Jr., Edward Howrd,
Ed Reitan's Color Television History
, retrieved July 1, 2007.

Inline citations

External links

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldmark, Peter Carl 20th-century Hungarian engineers Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian Jews Television pioneers National Medal of Science laureates Road incident deaths in New York (state) 1906 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American inventors