As I attempt to write this text, my buddy and I’ve six completely different screens connected to 3 forms of units. We’re working in the identical room however on our personal initiatives—separate but collectively, a snug companionship.
I had by no means actually considered the proliferation of screens as a peacekeeping device till I stumbled throughout one in all Allen B. DuMont’s Fifties dual-screen tv units. DuMont’s thought was to let two individuals in the identical room watch completely different packages. It jogged my memory of my early childhood and my household’s one TV set, and the countless arguments with my sisters and fogeys over what to look at. Dad all the time received, and his alternative was hardly ever mine.
The DuMont Duoscopic Was 2 TVs in 1
Allen B. DuMont was a pioneer of business tv in the USA. His eponymous firm manufactured cathode-ray tubes and in 1938 launched one of many earliest digital TV units. He understood how human nature and a scarcity of TV screens may divide {couples}, siblings, and mates. Accordingly, he constructed at the least two prototype TVs that might play two reveals without delay.
Within the 1945 prototype proven at high, DuMont retrofitted a maple-finished cupboard that initially held a single 15-inch Plymouth TV receiver to accommodate two black-and-white 12-inch receivers. Separate audio may very well be performed with or with out earpieces. Viewers used a 10-turn dial to tune into TV channel 1 (which went off the air in 1948) and VHF channels 2 by way of 13. As radio was nonetheless far more widespread than tv, the dial additionally included FM from 88 to 108 megahertz, plus a number of channels used for climate and aviation. The decrease left drawer held a phonograph. It was an all-in-one leisure middle.
To view their desired packages on the DuMont Duoscopic TV set, this household wore polarized glasses and listened by way of earpieces.Allen DuMont/Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian
In 1954, DuMont launched a unique strategy. With the DuMont Duoscopic, two completely different channels had been broadcast on a single display screen. To the bare eye, the pictures appeared superimposed on each other. However a viewer who wore polarized glasses or seemed on the display screen by way of a polarized panel noticed simply one of many photographs.
Duoscopic viewers may use an earpiece to hearken to the audio of their alternative. You would additionally use the TV set to look at a single program by choosing just one channel and taking part in the audio by way of one speaker.
DuMont appeared dedicated to the concept that members of the family ought to spend time collectively, even when they had been engaged in several actions. A picture of the Duoscopic despatched out by the Related Press Wirephoto Service heralded “No extra lonely nights for the missus.” Based on the caption, she may be part of “Hubby,” who was already enjoyable in his comfortable armchair having fun with his favourite present, however now watch one thing of her personal selecting.
“Would you imagine it?” a Duoscopic brochure asks. “Whereas HE sees and hears the fights, SHE sees and hears her play…. Separate viewing and solo sound permits your loved ones a alternative.”
The know-how to separate and isolate the pictures and audio was key. The Duoscopic had two CRTs, every with its personal feed, set at proper angles to one another. A half-silvered mirror superimposed the 2 photographs onto a single display screen, which may then be filtered with polarized glasses or screens.
TV pioneer Allen B. DuMont designed and manufactured cathode ray tubes and TV units and launched an early TV community.Science Historical past Photos/Alamy
A separate field may very well be conveniently positioned close by to regulate the amount of every program. Customers may toggle between the 2 packages with the flick of a swap. Every set got here with eight earpieces with lengthy cords. A brief word within the March 1954 problem of Electrical Engineering praises the engineers who crafted the sound system to remove sound bleed from the audio system. It notes {that a} viewer “very simply may watch one tv program and hearken to the audio content material of a second.”
Or, as a United Press piece printed within the Panama Metropolis Information Herald urged, a part of the household may use the earpieces to look at and hearken to the TV whereas others within the room may “learn, play bridge, or simply sit and brood.” I think the brooders had been the youngsters who nonetheless didn’t get to look at their favourite present.
After all, alternative was a relative matter. Within the Fifties, many U.S. tv markets had been fortunate to have even two channels. Solely in main metropolitan areas had been there extra programming choices.
The one recognized instance of DuMont’s side-by-side model resides on the South Carolina State Museum, in Columbia. However sources point out that DuMont deliberate to fabricate about 30 Duoscopics for demonstration functions, though it’s unclear what number of had been truly made. (The Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past has a Duoscopic in its collections.) Alas, neither model ever went into mainstream manufacturing. Maybe that’s as a result of the economics didn’t make sense: Even within the early Fifties, it might have been simpler and cheaper for households to easily buy two tv units and watch them in several rooms.
Who Was Early TV Pioneer Allen DuMont?
DuMont is an attention-grabbing determine within the historical past of tv as a result of he was actively engaged within the full spectrum of the trade. Not solely did he develop and manufacture receivers, he additionally performed broadcasting experiments, printed papers on transmission and reception, ran a tv community, and produced programming.
After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1924 with a level in electrical engineering, DuMont labored in a plant that manufactured vacuum tubes. 4 years later, he joined the De Forest Radio Co. as chief engineer. With Lee de Forest, DuMont helped design an experimental mechanical tv station, however he was unconvinced by the know-how and advocated for all-electric TV for its crisper picture.
When the Radio Company of America acquired De Forest Radio in 1931, DuMont began his personal laboratory in his basement, the place he labored on enhancing cathode ray tubes. In 1932 he invented the “magic eye,” a vacuum tube that was a visible tuning assist in radio receivers. He bought the rights to RCA.
In 1935, DuMont moved the operation to a former pickle manufacturing facility in Passaic, N.J., and integrated it because the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories. The corporate produced cathode ray oscilloscopes, which helped finance his experiments with tv. He debuted the all-electronic DuMont 180 TV set in June 1938. It price US $395, or nearly $9,000 right now—so not precisely an on a regular basis buy for most individuals. Though DuMont was fast to market, RCA and the Tv Corp. of America had been proper on his tail.
After all, if firms had been going to promote televisions, customers needed to have packages to look at. So in 1939, DuMont launched his personal tv community, beginning with station W2XWV, broadcasting from Passaic. The Federal Communications Fee licensed W2XWV as an experimental station for tv analysis. DuMont acquired a business license and adjusted its name signal to WABD on 2 Could 1944, three years after NBC’s and CBS’s business stations went into operation in New York Metropolis.
As a consequence of wartime restrictions and debates over trade requirements, tv remained principally experimental throughout World Battle II. As of September 1944, there have been solely six stations working—three in New York Metropolis and one every in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. There have been roughly 7,000 TV units in private use.
The DuMont Tv Community’s selection present hosted by Jackie Gleason (left, fingers raised) featured a recurring skit that later gave rise to “The Honeymooners.”Left: CBS/Getty Photos; Proper: Garry Winogrand/Image Publish/Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
Whereas different networks centered on sports activities, motion pictures, or distant broadcasts, the DuMont Tv Community made its mark with reside studio broadcasts. In April 1946, WABD moved its studios to the Wanamaker Division Retailer in Manhattan. DuMont transformed the 14,200-cubic-meter (500,000-cubic-foot) auditorium into the world’s largest tv studio. The community’s notable programming included “The Authentic Newbie Hour,” which began as a radio program; “The Johns Hopkins Science Evaluation,” which had a surprisingly progressive tackle girls’s well being; “Life Is Price Dwelling,” a devotional present hosted by Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen (that garnered DuMont’s solely Emmy Award); “Cavalcade of Stars,” a spread present hosted by Jackie Gleason that birthed “The Honeymooners”; and “Captain Video and His Video Rangers,” a kids’s science fiction collection, the primary of its style. My grandmother, who beloved ballroom dancing, was an enormous fan of “The Arthur Murray Social gathering,” a dance present hosted by Arthur’s spouse, Kathryn; my mother fondly remembers Kathryn’s twirling skirts.
Whereas NBC, CBS, and the opposite main tv gamers constructed their TV networks on their current radio networks, DuMont was beginning recent. To lift capital for his broadcast station, he bought a half-interest in his firm to Paramount Footage in 1938. The partnership was contentious from the beginning. There have been disputes over cash, the path of the enterprise, and inventory. However maybe the most important battle was when Paramount and a few of its subsidiaries started making use of for FCC licenses in the identical markets as Dumont’s. This ate into the DuMont community’s promoting and income and its plans to broaden. In August 1955, Paramount gained full management over the DuMont community and proceeded to close it down.
DuMont continued to fabricate tv receivers till 1958, when he bought the enterprise to the Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp. Two years later, the rest of DuMont Labs merged with the Fairchild Digicam and Instrument Corp. (whose founder, Sherman Fairchild, had in 1957 helped a gaggle of formidable younger scientists and engineers generally known as the “Traitorous Eight” arrange Fairchild Semiconductor). Allen DuMont served as basic supervisor of the DuMont division for a 12 months after which grew to become a technical guide to Fairchild. He died in 1965.
One Factor Allen DuMont Missed
My household ultimately bought a second after which a 3rd tv, however my dad all the time had precedence. He watched the most important set from his recliner within the household room, whereas my mother made do with the smaller units within the kitchen and bed room. He was enjoyable, whereas she was often doing chores. As a household, we might watch completely different reveals in separate locations.
An advert for the DuMont Duoscopic touted it as a tool for family concord: “Whereas HE sees and hears the fights, SHE sees and hears her play.” Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian
Today, with so many screens on so many units and so many programming choices, we might have lastly achieved DuMont’s imaginative and prescient of separate however collectively. Whereas I used to be scripting this piece, my buddy was watching the French Open on the primary TV, muted so she didn’t disturb me. She streamed the identical channel on her pill and routed the audio to her headset. We each labored on our respective laptops and procrastinated by checking messages on our telephones.
However there’s one side of human nature that DuMont’s prototypes and promotional supplies failed to handle—that second when somebody sees one thing so thrilling that they simply must share it. Sarah and I had been barely getting any work executed on this separate-but-together setting as a result of we saved interrupting one another with questions, feedback, and the occasional tennis replace. We’ve been mates too lengthy; we will’t assist however chitchat.
The one means for me to really end this text will probably be to go to a room on my own with no different screens or individuals to distract me.
A part of a seamless collection historic artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of know-how.
An abridged model of this text seems within the July 2025 print problem as “The two-in-1 TV.”
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