George, Roscoe H. (Roscoe Henry), 1896-1975
Person
Dates
- Existence: December 9, 1896 - December 29, 1975
Biographical Information
Professor, inventor, and television pioneer Roscoe H. George was born on a farm in Madison County on December 9, 1896. He entered Purdue in 1915. His education was interrupted by his service in the 9th Mounted Engineers Corps of the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1919 during World War I. He received his BS in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1922 and his Master of Science degree in 1927 after producing a cathode ray oscillograph used in science labs to photograph lightning and high voltage electricity. His first position at Purdue University, before he graduated, was that of research assistant and later research associate of the High Voltage Laboratory, Electrical Division of the Engineering Equipment Experiment Station. He held this position from 1922 to 1929. He became a full Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering in 1946 and retired in June of 1965. The College of Engineering now has an endowed chair entitled the "Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering."
George’s research and work were important to the development of television and its transmission, as well as a variety of other things. During his early years at Purdue he worked in the area of corona loss (electrical discharge) and lighting pulses on transmission lines. This work led to the development of the hot cathode tube and the associated oscilloscope, which was involved with protecting power line circuits from lightening strikes. From 1929 to 1941, George was involved in television research, automotive and aircraft ignition studies, blind-landing systems, and precipitation static elimination on aircraft. From 1941 to 1946 his interests turned to aircraft fire-control system tracking, electrostatic charging of aircraft flying through snow and ice, and pulse noise generation. Late in his career he made major breakthroughs in the use of semiconductor rectifiers in multi-element bridges to convert microwave energy to direct current.
He held 31 patents from his early research on television, and from 1930-1934 he developed a television research station at Purdue. A license to broadcast TV was granted on October 27, 1930. W9XG came on the air on December 31, 1931 and on March 29, 1931 regular broadcasting began. In his television research he was assisted by Professor Howard J. Heim and was funded by the Grigsby-Grunow (Magestic) Radio Company and later RCA (Radio Corporation of America) after Grigsby-Grunow withdrew its support.
Locally he was a member of the Exchange Club, the electrical engineering honor societies Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi scientific honor society.
George’s research and work were important to the development of television and its transmission, as well as a variety of other things. During his early years at Purdue he worked in the area of corona loss (electrical discharge) and lighting pulses on transmission lines. This work led to the development of the hot cathode tube and the associated oscilloscope, which was involved with protecting power line circuits from lightening strikes. From 1929 to 1941, George was involved in television research, automotive and aircraft ignition studies, blind-landing systems, and precipitation static elimination on aircraft. From 1941 to 1946 his interests turned to aircraft fire-control system tracking, electrostatic charging of aircraft flying through snow and ice, and pulse noise generation. Late in his career he made major breakthroughs in the use of semiconductor rectifiers in multi-element bridges to convert microwave energy to direct current.
He held 31 patents from his early research on television, and from 1930-1934 he developed a television research station at Purdue. A license to broadcast TV was granted on October 27, 1930. W9XG came on the air on December 31, 1931 and on March 29, 1931 regular broadcasting began. In his television research he was assisted by Professor Howard J. Heim and was funded by the Grigsby-Grunow (Magestic) Radio Company and later RCA (Radio Corporation of America) after Grigsby-Grunow withdrew its support.
Locally he was a member of the Exchange Club, the electrical engineering honor societies Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi scientific honor society.