Allen B. DuMont (1901-1965), Montclair
DuMont Laboratories, Montclair and Passaic

In 1932, working at a small laboratory in the basement of his home in Upper Montclair, DuMont invented the "Magic Eye," a cathode-ray tube that could be used as a visual tuning aid in radio receivers. He sold the rights to his invention to RCA for $20,000, which he used as capital for expansion. He developed a long-persistence coating for cathode-ray tubes with the use of an electronic pencil, a device permitting remote-controlled writing on a screen. In 1933, DuMont proposed a radio-detection system but was asked by the Army Signal Corps not to seek patents because of its military significance. The following year his laboratory was incorporated as the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories in Passaic.

When the television market for cathode-ray tubes was slow to develop, DuMont turned to the manufacture of cathode-ray oscilloscopes for use as research and test instruments. During the 1930s, scientist Ernest O. Lawrence of the University of California used DuMont's oscilloscopes in atomic research. In the late 1930s, DuMont traveled to Europe to study the latest developments in television. Upon his return, he developed an all-electronic television receiver to be marketed by 1938.

In 1939, DuMont criticized the television standards proposed by the Radio Manufacturers Association and proposed alternatives that would be more compatible with future innovations. He became an influential member of the National Television Systems Committee, which formulated standards that were ultimately adopted. In 1941, he initiated experimental telecasts over W2XWV (later WABD) in New York.

During World War II, the DuMont Laboratories manufactured instruments, radar and navigational systems for the Navy and Signal Corps. It also participated in the Manhattan Project.

After the war, the DuMont television network was established. Initially, it linked WABD in New York with WTTG in Washington, D.C. It soon expanded to serve approximately 200 affiliated stations and was incorporated as Metropolitan Broadcasting Company in 1955 (later Metromedia).

DuMont's assembly plants for television receivers were sold to Emerson Radio and Phonograph in 1958. In 1960, DuMont Labs were merged with Fairchild Camera and Instrument. Dumont served as senior technical consultant until his death in 1965. He established the Allen B. DuMont Foundation, which supported educational television at Montclair State College beginning in 1952.