As I attempt to write this text, my buddy and I’ve six completely different screens connected to 3 varieties of gadgets. We’re working in the identical room however on our personal tasks—separate but collectively, a snug companionship.
I had by no means actually considered the proliferation of screens as a peacekeeping software 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 infinite arguments with my sisters and fogeys over what to look at. Dad at all times received, and his alternative was hardly ever mine.
The DuMont Duoscopic Was 2 TVs in 1
Allen B. DuMont was a pioneer of economic tv in america. 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 a minimum of two prototype TVs that might play two reveals without delay.
Within the 1945 prototype proven at prime, DuMont retrofitted a maple-finished cupboard that initially held a single 15-inch Plymouth TV receiver to deal with two black-and-white 12-inch receivers. Separate audio could possibly 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 13. As radio was nonetheless rather more in style 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 earpieces.Allen DuMont/Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian
In 1954, DuMont launched a unique method. With the DuMont Duoscopic, two completely different channels had been broadcast on a single display screen. To the bare eye, the photographs appeared superimposed on each other. However a viewer who wore polarized glasses or appeared on the display screen by a polarized panel noticed simply one of many photos.
Duoscopic viewers may use an earpiece to take heed to the audio of their alternative. You possibly can additionally use the TV set to look at a single program by choosing just one channel and taking part in the audio by one speaker.
DuMont appeared dedicated to the concept that relations 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.” In response to the caption, she may be a part of “Hubby,” who was already stress-free in his cozy 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 expertise to separate and isolate the photographs 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 photos 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 Pictures/Alamy
A separate field could possibly 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 notice within the March 1954 concern of Electrical Engineering praises the engineers who crafted the sound system to get rid of sound bleed from the audio system. It notes {that a} viewer “very simply may watch one tv program and take heed to the audio content material of a second.”
Or, as a United Press piece printed within the Panama Metropolis Information Herald recommended, a part of the household may use the earpieces to look at and take heed to the TV whereas others within the room may “learn, play bridge, or simply sit and brood.” I believe the brooders had been the youngsters who nonetheless didn’t get to look at their favourite present.
In fact, 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 fascinating determine within the history of television as a result of he was actively engaged within the full spectrum of the business. Not solely did he develop and manufacture receivers, he additionally performed broadcasting experiments, published 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 television station, however he was unconvinced by the expertise 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 bettering 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 included 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 value US $395, or virtually $9,000 in the present day—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.
In fact, if corporations 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 industrial license and altered its name signal to WABD on 2 Could 1944, three years after NBC’s and CBS’s industrial stations went into operation in New York Metropolis.
Because of wartime restrictions and debates over business requirements, tv remained largely 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, hands raised] featured a recurring skit that later gave rise to “The Honeymooners.”Left: CBS/Getty Pictures; Proper: Garry Winogrand/Image Submit/Hulton Archive/Getty Pictures
Whereas different networks targeted on sports activities, films, or distant broadcasts, the DuMont Tv Community made its mark with stay 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 Original Amateur Hour,” which began as a radio program; “The Johns Hopkins Science Evaluate,” which had a surprisingly progressive tackle girls’s well being; “Life Is Worth Living,” a devotional present hosted by Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen (that garnered DuMont’s solely Emmy Award); “Cavalcade of Stars,” a range present hosted by Jackie Gleason that birthed “The Honeymooners”; and “Captain Video and His Video Rangers,” a kids’s science fiction sequence, the primary of its style. My grandmother, who liked ballroom dancing, was a giant fan of “The Arthur Murray Party,” 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 contemporary. To lift capital for his broadcast station, he bought a half-interest in his firm to Paramount Photos in 1938. The partnership was contentious from the beginning. There have been disputes over cash, the course 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 increase. 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 Camera and Instrument Corp. (whose founder, Sherman Fairchild, had in 1957 helped a bunch of bold younger scientists and engineers generally known as the “Traitorous Eight” arrange Fairchild Semiconductor). Allen DuMont served as normal supervisor of the DuMont division for a yr after which grew to become a technical guide to Fairchild. He died in 1965.
One Factor Allen DuMont Missed
My household finally bought a second after which a 3rd tv, however my dad at all times 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 stress-free, whereas she was often doing chores. As a household, we’d 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 gadgets and so many programming choices, we could have lastly achieved DuMont’s imaginative and prescient of separate however collectively. Whereas I used to be penning 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 facet of human nature that DuMont’s prototypes and promotional supplies failed to deal with—that second when somebody sees one thing so thrilling that they simply must share it. Sarah and I had been barely getting any work achieved 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 shall be to go to a room on my own with no different screens or individuals to distract me.
A part of a continuing series historic artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of expertise.
An abridged model of this text seems within the July 2025 print concern as “The two-in-1 TV.”
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