Ernst alex anderson biography template
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In 1927, he demonstrated the first home reception of television at his own home in Schenectady, using high-frequency neon lamps and a perforated scanning disc. There, he read the book “Alternating Current Phenomena” by General Electric’s Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz and was inspired to travel to the United States with the hope of having an opportunity to meet and work with this great man.
Fessenden needed a continuous wave transmitter, a pure sine wave on a single frequency to make voice, he turned to General Electric as he knew they had some of the world's best engineers in the field at that time.
An assignment to build a high-frequency alternator for Professor Reginald A. Fessenden, one of the pioneer radio experimenters, gave Alexanderson an opportunity to prove himself.
Alexanderson improved this machine by substituting iron for wood in the armature. It assured reliable trans-Atlantic radio communication.
Later on Alexanderson thanked Fessenden for being a leader in radio. In 1945, he invented a portable sound recorder, and in 1955, he patented a color television receiver developed for RCA, where he worked as a consultant after his retirement from GE in 1948.
He was elected to the Royal Academy of Science in Sweden in 1924 and was awarded the Edison Medal from the American IEEE and the Cedergren Medal in 1944.
He worked for a few months as a draftsman for the C&C Electric Company in New Jersey before joining the General Electric Company (GE) in Schenectady, NY, in 1902. Ernst F.W. Alexanderson, GE communications pioneer, has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Arlington, VA in recognition of his work on the high frequency alternator.
With more improvements in 1908 and 1911 this became the famous "Alexanderson Alternator". In 1903, Charles Proteus Steinmetz delivered a 10 kHz version which proved of limited use and could not be directly used as a radio transmitter. This alternator, one of several designed by him from 1905 to 1920 was used to send transatlantic radio-telegraph messages from Rocky Point, Long Island.
Beginning in 1904, Alexanderson designed a series of high-frequency alternators for use in radio as sources of transmitter power which provided an alternative to spark and arc transmitters.
He called Fessenden the "American Father of radio".
More on the 1906 broadcast from IEEE >
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, IRE President, 1921, invented a self-exciting alternator. He received the Edison Medal of the AIEE in 1944. This historical photograph, taken in 1922, shows the late Dr. Alexanderson inspecting one of the high frequency alternators that gave America its start in the field of radio communication.
He provided some technical information on the 200-kW radio alternator, the magnetic amplifier, and a multiple antenna which were key elements of his long-wave system. His numerous inventions and other achievements gained him recognition as one of the most outstanding members of the electrical engineering profession during a career of over a half century.
Ernst Alexanderson
Electrical engineer and inventor, Ernst Fredrick Werner Alexanderson, developed pioneering technological concepts during the early 20th century that contributed to the birth of the broadcasting industry. In 1927 he staged the first home reception of television using high-frequency neon lamps and a perforated scanning disc.
Alexanderson died in 1975 at age 97.
This would necessitate a much higher-frequency alternating generator than was available at the time. Subsequently, he devised a modified repulsion motor for electric railway use, which he described in a 1908 AIEE paper. These machines were maxed out at around 60 Hertz then; Alexanderson was asked to build a machine that could generate a 100,000 Hertz frequency.
Under the guidance of Canadian radio pioneer, Professor Reginald Fessenden, Alexanderson was able to construct such a machine within just two years.
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson
U.S. Patent No. 1,008,577
Inducted in 1983
Born Jan. 25, 1878 - Died May 14, 1975
Ernst Alexanderson was the General Electric Company engineer whose high-frequency alternator gave America its start in the field of radio communication. During World War II, he worked on analog computers for use with radar and developed military applications of the amplidyne.