DuMont, Allen B.

DuMont, Allen B. (Balcom) (1901–66) electrical engineer, inventor, manufacturer, broadcaster; born in New York City. After working as an electrical engineer for Westinghouse Lamp Company (1924–28) and the DeForest Radio Company (1928–31), he set up a laboratory in his home and developed a cathode-ray tube that was used to tune radio receivers. He incorporated the DuMont Laboratories in 1934 and made cathode-ray oscilloscopes, and he was involved in early experimental telecasts (1941). After World War II he set up a small television network and fostered much of the industry's early programming and business talent; it was incorporated as the Metropolitan Broadcasting Company in 1959, later known as Metromedia. His television assembly plants were the first to make all-electronic television sets.