As I attempt to write this text, my good friend and I’ve six totally different screens hooked up to a few 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 software till I stumbled throughout one in every of Allen B. DuMont’s Nineteen Fifties dual-screen tv units. DuMont’s concept was to let two folks in the identical room watch totally 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 observe. Dad at all times received, and his selection was not often 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 might divide {couples}, siblings, and buddies. Accordingly, he constructed at the very least two prototype TVs that would play two reveals directly.
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 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 via 13. As radio was nonetheless way more well-liked 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 heart.
To view their desired packages on the DuMont Duoscopic TV set, this household wore polarized glasses and listened via earpieces.Allen DuMont/Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian
In 1954, DuMont launched a distinct method. With the DuMont Duoscopic, two totally different channels had been broadcast on a single display. To the bare eye, the pictures appeared superimposed on each other. However a viewer who wore polarized glasses or appeared on the display via a polarized panel noticed simply one of many pictures.
Duoscopic viewers might use an earpiece to hearken to the audio of their selection. You may additionally use the TV set to observe a single program by choosing just one channel and taking part in the audio via 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.” In response to the caption, she might be a part of “Hubby,” who was already enjoyable in his cozy armchair having fun with his favourite present, however now watch one thing of her personal selecting.
“Would you consider 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 selection.”
The expertise 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 pictures onto a single display, which might 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 manage the quantity of every program. Customers might toggle between the 2 packages with the flick of a swap. Every set got here with eight earpieces with lengthy cords. A brief observe within the March 1954 concern of Electrical Engineering praises the engineers who crafted the sound system to eradicate sound bleed from the audio system. It notes {that a} viewer “very simply might 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 prompt, a part of the household might use the earpieces to observe and hearken to the TV whereas others within the room might “learn, play bridge, or simply sit and brood.” I think the brooders had been the kids who nonetheless didn’t get to observe their favourite present.
In fact, selection was a relative matter. Within the Nineteen 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 Nineteen Fifties, it will 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 carried out 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 unit 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 price US $395, or nearly $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, shoppers needed to have packages to observe. 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 adjusted its name signal to WABD on 2 Might 1944, three years after NBC’s and CBS’s industrial stations went into operation in New York Metropolis.
Resulting from 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 Photos; Proper: Garry Winogrand/Image Put up/Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
Whereas different networks targeted on sports activities, motion pictures, 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 Evaluation,” 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 collection, the primary of its style. My grandmother, who cherished ballroom dancing, was a giant fan of “The Arthur Murray Party,” a dance present hosted by Arthur’s spouse, Kathryn; my mother fondly recollects Kathryn’s twirling skirts.
Whereas NBC, CBS, and the opposite main tv gamers constructed their TV networks on their present 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 route of the enterprise, and inventory. However maybe the largest 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 develop. 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 gaggle of bold younger scientists and engineers referred to as the “Traitorous Eight” arrange Fairchild Semiconductor). Allen DuMont served as common supervisor of the DuMont division for a yr after which turned a technical marketing consultant to Fairchild. He died in 1965.
One Factor Allen DuMont Missed
My household ultimately received a second after which a 3rd tv, however my dad at all times had precedence. He watched the largest 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 normally doing chores. As a household, we’d watch totally 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
Lately, with so many screens on so many units and so many programming choices, we could have lastly achieved DuMont’s imaginative and prescient of separate however collectively. Whereas I used to be scripting this piece, my good friend 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 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 completed 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 buddies too lengthy; we will’t assist however chitchat.
The one manner for me to truly end this text might be to go to a room on my own with no different screens or folks 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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