Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr.

1
Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr.
Pioneer of television technology
1910-2009
Nowhere so besy a man as he ther was, And yit he
semide besier than he was.
2

• Presented by
• Catherine
• Mary Pat
• Emma Lyne

3
The Birth of a Pioneer
Thomas Goldsmith Jr. was born on January
9,1910 He was the younger of two sons, Thomas
and Charlotte Manley Goldsmith. His father was
an insurance and real estate broker and his
mother was a concert pianist.

• As a teenager he was interested in building
  crystal radio sets.
• His nickname was Doc .
• He married Helen Elizabeth Wilcox and had three
  children, Judson Wilcox Goldsmith, Thomas
  Goldsmith III, and Virginia G. Beekmann.
• They were married for 70 years.
• He has six grandchildren and ten
  great-grandchildren.

4
Raider Class of 1927
He received the superlative Best Musician and
graduated salutatorian He was a member of the
Wilson Club, Lee Literary Society, Music
Club, Orchestra, Glee Club, Honor Club,
Leaders Corps, Nautilus Staff, Store
Assistant, and a member of the Athletic
Association.

• He sang bass in the Glee Club and played the
  violin in the orchestra.
• In the school play H.M.S. Pinafore, Goldsmith
  played the character Dick Deadeye, an able seaman.

5
Burns1927

• The mortal life of Robert Burns is sad,
• But yet it is with great achievement filled
• He strove to conquer all which he was willed
• To meet in the wild world of good and bad.
• Tho forced to write to earn his daily bread,
• He could not others rule, nor he be ruled
• Yet all his works by critics now are held
• A those of one of our most honored dead.
• From this, all men should learn a lesson true
• The greatest man is he does best,
• Een tho he may be hidden far from view
• Ands never known in life by all the rest
• By striving patiently his best to do,
• His works will stand the most exacting test.
• 
  
  
  poem from
  his years at
• Greenville High School

6

Goldsmiths Quest for Knowledge

• He
• became
• an applied
• electricity
• instructor
• in physics at
• Cornell
• and Furman
• presented
• him with an
• honorary
• LLD.

• After graduating from Greenville High, Goldsmith
  continued his education at Furman University,
  where he graduated in 1931.
• He then attended Cornell University, where he
  received his PhD in 1937 in physics.

7
DuMont and Goldsmith helped pioneer turning
oscilloscopes into full television displays.

• He joined the Allen DuMont Laboratories in 1936
  and became the Director of Research for 30 years,
  and the treasurer of Allen B. Dumont Foundation.
• The Laboratory began in his garage of his home
  and then later was moved to a former pickle
  factory in Passaic, New Jersey.
• During this time he pioneered cathode ray tubes,
  oscillographs, TV receivers, transmitters, TV
  cameras, radar systems, fiber optics, and the
  sonar space exploration with NASA.
• He became WWII chairmen of committee to assure
  the industry of cathode ray tubes in RADAR
  other military applications would continue.
• He was a member of the first National Television
  Systems Committee, which was established in 1940.
• He also supervised developments of precision
  RADAR units and field studies of TV station
  coverage.

8

• April 30, 1939, Worlds Fair in Queens, people
  crowed around DuMont
  Television to watch President
  F.D.R.s speech, which was made possible by
  Thomas Goldsmith and Thomas DuMont.

9

Creations of the Stations

• Thomas Goldsmith helped establish the TV
  station WABD in New York, which started
  commercial broadcasting and in 1955 became part
  of Metromedia Inc.
• By 1947 three TV stations had been made
• WABD in New York
• WDTV in Pittsburgh
• WTTG in Washington( now part of Fox network).

10
Crash of DuMont Televison Network

• The DuMont Television Network closed in 1955
  because of a lack of interest in sales for their
  television sets which had helped keep the company
  alive.
• Five years later, the laboratory merged with
  Fairchild Camera.
• Because of this incident Goldsmith never got to
  make a huge impact on the
  television industry that now is
  the center of our world.

11
Making His Idea a Reality

• In 1947 he received patent No. 2,455,992.
• This patent created the first video game which
  allowed a player to shoot down a created image of
  an airplane with a beam.

• It could not be created because of a lack of
  monetary support behind the idea.
• This was made possible, but after Goldsmith left
  DuMont Laboratories.

12
Later Years

• Thomas Goldsmith then returned to Furman
  University and became a Physics professor from
  1966-1986.
• Goldsmith used to watch the bell tower at Furman
  University.

13
The End of the Road

• Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. passed away in his
  home in Lacy, Washington on March 5, 2009. He was
  99 years old.
• Hid death was caused due to complications after a
  hip fracture.
• His memorial service was held March 15, 2009 at
  the United Churches of Olympia at 130 pm.
• He had memorial donations made to Providence Home
  Care and Hospice or United Churches of Olympia.

14

Goldsmith in his later years.
Above Goldsmith watching his creation. Left
Part of the creation of Goldsmiths video
game. Below Goldsmith at DuMont Laboratories.
15
Interview With Thomas Goldsmithcourtesy of
www.youtube.com by Karen from Archive of American
Television

• Was it in high school or at Furman that you
  started to put some definition or focus on what
  you might like to do in the future?
• Actually in high school I wrote a paper in
  chemistry and won a prize and as a prize was two
  volumes on the life of Thomas Albert Edison. I
  was like, hum, I like this guy, I want to work
  for him, but he up and died on me before I
  finished graduate school. But I know Thomas
  Edisons family and have been in the laboratories
  before in New Jersey.

16

• Was graduate school part of your plan while you
  were at Furman? When did you decide to keep going
  to school?
• Well Furman university is a liberal arts college
  and had an excellent science department and one
  of the people teaching in the science division
  was Professor Cox who had gone to Cornell
  University. He inspired me to go to Graduate
  school and I graduated form Furman in 1931( heart
  of depression). I saved up 250 bucks as a
  newspaper carrier. 250 bucks and me went up to
  Cornell for five years and I got my degree in
  Physics. I found that my level of Physics
  instruction at Furman was limited, so my whole
  first year was taking undergraduate courses to
  catch up. I had a wonderful professor named
  Frederick Bedell. I was on the faculty as a
  student assistant at Furman and as well at
  Cornell.

17

• Explain why television receivers dont have a
  channel one.
• Channels 2 - 13 are called the VHF channels, a
  low frequency group and a high frequency group.
  The early days it was channel one. Nowadays we
  didnt want to upset the numbering, so we just
  abandoned channel one.

18
Its 1936 and you are hired by Allen Dumont as
his 14th employee. Tell me a little bit about the
working conditions during the depression.

• In 1936 the hours were fairly normal 30 or 40
  hours a week with an income of 35 dollars a week
  which was typical during these days. Allen and I
  were busy building cathode ray tubes and one of
  our assignments was to take these instruments out
  to schools and teach these professors the use of
  cathode ray tubes. We would do that as an
  introduction for 2 purposes 1. to know how to
  use these in their electronic research 2. this
  someday would be a device called television.
• In 1931 Dumont got basic patents on cathode ray
  tubes to such a degree that he had a patent back
  log to developing not only instruments but radar
  systems and all kinds of electronic devices for
  medical applications. This work was being done in
  the little hatch shop when I first started
  working we took on all three of those little
  buildings and my brother joined me at that time
  and helped with building cathode ray tubes.

19
Bibliography

• Department of Geosciences Idaho State
  University. 13 May 2009 lthttp//geology.isu.edu/ge
  ostac/Field_Exercise/wildfire/images/Prescribed-Bu
  rn.jpggt.
• "Dr. Thomas Goldsmith, Jr. Has Died-- Archive
  Interview Online." Archive of American
  Television. 13 May 2009 lthttp//tvinterviewsarchiv
  e.blogspot.com/2009/03/dr-thomas-goldsmith-jr-has-
  died-archive.htmlgt.
• GAIHN, Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality
  Network, Carriage Rides - Downtown Greenville, SC
  - Home Page. 13 May 2009 lthttp//www.gaihn.org/ima
  ges/Paladins.jpggt.
• Greenville High School Yearbook 1927
• Home Page Kidshow.dcmemories.com. 13 May 2009
  lthttp//dcmemories.com/DrTTGJr/ThomasGoldsmithJrWT
  TG_DUA.JPGgt.
• IEEE - the world's leading professional
  association for the advancement of technology. 13
  May 2009 lthttp//www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_ipor
  tals/iportals/aboutus/history_center/oral_history/
  pdfs/Goldsmith008.pdfgt.
• "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times -
  Breaking News, World News Multimedia. 13 May
  2009 lthttp//www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/telev
  ision/15goldsmith.htmlgt.
• Westchestercce / FrontPage. 13 May 2009
  lthttp//westchestercce.pbworks.com/f/CUCE20ONLY-1
  106.gifgt.
• "YouTube - Thomas Goldsmith - Archive Interview
  Part 1 of 9." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 17
  May 2009 lthttp//www.youtube.com/watch?vnpNfOikMM
  FAfeaturePlayListpEA25DDD10B3966DBindex0gt.