Roscoe H. George papers

Roscoe H. George was a Professor of Electrical and and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering at Purdue University. The College of Engineering now has an endowed chair entitled the "Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering."

George earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Purdue University in 1922. He earned 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 reseach and work was important to the delvelopment of television and its transmission, among other things.

One of those milestones involving Purdue occurred in the spring of 1930. On May 13, news media reported that the Federal Radio Commission had authorized construction of a TV transmitting station to Professor C.F. Harding, dean of Purdue's Schools of Engineering. Harding had been heading a team seriously researching television in West Lafayette for about a year before the federal authority arrived. His team, funded with a $120,000 grant from the Grisgby-Grunow Co. of Chicago, included Professor Raymond B. Abbott and instructor Roscoe H. George.

Early reports had it that the first station for long-distance experiments would be built in the Electrical Engineering Building and would operate with a power of 1,500 watts on a wavelength of 2,100 kilocycles. Those may have been early plans, but they changed as time went on. The transmitter actually went up north of Ross-Ade Stadium, the frequency was set at 2,800 kilocycles, and the power 500 or maybe 1000 watts.

Yet another major moment toward development of TV occurred at Purdue in the late winter of 1933. The Journal and Courier described the first home demonstrations of a portable TV receiver. A Purdue team working under Roscoe George produced it and began showing it off in the Harding family home of at 607 University St., West Lafayette. Various Purdue officials and local business and professional leaders saw it work on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 31. Then on Friday afternoon, Feb. 3, 1933, several engineers from Radio Corporation of America (RCA) arrived from the East for an inspection.

Source: Kriebel, Bob. "Old Lafayette: Purdue had a role in Early Television." Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana). Reprinted February 15, 2019. Originally published June 8, 2003. /www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/02/15/old-lafayette-purdue-had-role-early-television/2868818002/>