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Originally Posted by Tom_Ryan
The Dumont, Farnsworth, Blonder Tongue, RCA, GE, Zenith, Adminral, and broadcaster like ABC, NBC, and CBS companies that historically molded the TV industry, to name a few, are either gone or dwindling.
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How true! I guess we can't stop "progress", but as collectors and historians, it's fortunate that we are able to appreciate and document and preserve artifacts and memories from the early days of the television revolution. Here in New Jersey, we're particularly fortunate since so much of the early work in the United States happened nearby. Our club meets at the Sarnoff Corporation, the old RCA Princeton labs where so much of television technology was - and continues to be - invented. Our new museum is on Marconi Drive, in a cottage Marconi built as part of his legendary transatlantic receiving station. It's easy enough to drive past where Farnsworth worked in Philadelphia, or where Atwater Kent made his radios. Or where Edison electrified Roselle, NJ or Pearl Street in New York City. Or Armstrong's tower in Alpine. Likewise, DuMont's old neighborhood is just down the road - I knew a man who worked with him, and with Jenkins. It's very cool to have been in Edison's labs, and his house. Prefer your history more recent? Drop in to Bell Labs! Heck, I only found out recently that I used to live a block from where Tesla once had offices in Rahway. And today (like it or not!) Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Ikegami and other major players in the television industry have their U.S. headquarters here. I don't know if anyone else gets off on that kind of stuff, but it's very inspiring to me!
Yes most of the movers and shakers from the companies you mentioned are gone now. But there's a notible exception: we're very lucky to have both Ben Tongue and Isaac Blonder as members of our local club. It's really a privilige to be able to have inventors of that caliber as friends. Here's a valued photo, a snapshot from one of our meetings.
--Dave Sica