Raymond Alphonsus Heising (August 10, 1888 - January 1965) was an American radio and telephone pioneer. Heising was born in

Albert Lea, Minnesota Albert Lea is a city in Freeborn County, in southern Minnesota. It is the county seat. Its population was 18,492 at the 2020 census. The city is at the junction of Interstates 35 and 90, about south of the Twin Cities. It is on the shores of ...

, graduated in 1912 in electrical engineering from the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

, and in 1914 received his master's degree from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. From 1914 until his retirement in 1953, Dr. Heising worked for the

Western Electric Company The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...

and

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, and subsequently as a consulting engineer and patent agent. Heising played a major role in the development of military

radio telephone Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

systems in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and for transoceanic and ship-to-shore public communications. He also conducted research on ultra-short waves, electronics, and

piezoelectric Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied Stress (mechanics), mechanical s ...

devices, and invented important modulation systems including the constant potential system, the grid modulation system, the rectifier modulation system used in carrier telephony, and the constant-current or Heising modulation system, which was standard on most early radio telephone transceivers. Heising held over 100 patents, including those on

Class C amplifier In electronics, power amplifier classes are letter symbols applied to different power amplifier types. The class gives a broad indication of an amplifier's characteristics and performance. The classes are related to the time period that the active ...

s and diode-triode detector amplifier circuits, and was a Fellow of the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States-based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Instit ...

and

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

. He was awarded the 1921

IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award The initially called Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize provided by the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award was created in 1919 in honor of Colonel Morris N. Liebmann. It was initially given to awardees who h ...

, the Modern Pioneer Award from the

National Association of Manufacturers The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., with additional offices across the United States. It is the nation's largest manufacturing industrial trade association, representing 14,000 s ...

in 1940, an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the

in 1947, and the Radio Club of America's Armstrong Medal in 1954.

References

IEEE History Center biography

Encyclopædia Britannica article
* Lewis Coe, ''Wireless Radio: A Brief History'', McFarland & Company, 1996, Page 178. . * D.G. Messerschmitt, "Introduction to the Classic Paper By R A. Heising", Proceedings of the IEEE, volume 85, issue 5, May 1997,pages 747-751. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heising, Raymond A. Radio pioneers Scientists at Bell Labs University of North Dakota alumni 1965 deaths 1888 births People from Albert Lea, Minnesota