Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc. (printed on products as Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc., referred to as DuMont Laboratories or DuMont Labs, and DuMont on company documents) was an American

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

equipment manufacturer and broadcasting company. At one point it owned TV stations WABD (WNYW, FOX O&O), KCTY (defunct DuMont affiliate), W2XVT (experimental, defunct DuMont affiliate), KE2XDR (experimental, defunct DuMont affiliate), & WDTV (KDKA-TV, CBS O&O), as well as

WTTG WTTG (channel 5) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station WDCA (cha ...

(FOX O&O), all former affiliates of its

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...

. The company was founded in 1931 in Upper Montclair, NJ, by inventor Allen B. DuMont, with its headquarters in nearby Clifton NJ. Among the company's developments were durable cathode ray tubes (CRTs) that would be used for TV and its

magic eye tube A magic eye tube or tuning indicator, in technical literature called an electron-ray indicator tube, is a vacuum tube which gives a visual indication of the amplitude of an electronic signal, such as an audio output, radio-frequency signal stren ...

History

In 1938, DuMont Labs began manufacturing televisions at a factory in nearby

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was List of municipalities in New Jersey, the state's 16th-most-populous ...

. To sell TVs, it began the

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.L ...

. 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 Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

's stake in Metropolitan Broadcasting, renaming it to

Metromedia Metromedia, Inc. (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio station, radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in ...

. 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 in 1958. The remainder of the company merged into Fairchild Camera in 1960. Fairchild later developed

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

microchip An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

Robert Noyce Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He was also credited w ...

, founder of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, originally worked for DuMont Labs as an engineer. DuMont Labs TVs outside the US were assembled under license in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, 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 rea ...

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 List of federal agencies in the United States, agency in the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark ...

website for the "Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc." trademark confirming the trademark's status as "DEAD".

References

{{Reflist

External links

Dumont Experimental Color CRTs
at 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 History of 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 Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States

History

Name ownership

See also

References

External links