born Dec. 18, 1890, New York, N.Y., U.S.
died Jan. 31/Feb. 1, 1954, New York City
U.S. inventor.
He studied at Columbia University, where he devised a feedback circuit that brought in signals with a thousandfold amplification (1912). At its highest amplification, the circuit shifted from being a receiver to being a primary generator of radio waves, and as such it is at the heart of all radio and television broadcasting. It earned him the Franklin Medal, the highest U.S. scientific honour. His 1933 invention of circuits that produced the carrier waves for frequency modulation ( FM ) made high-fidelity broadcasting possible.