Milestone-Proposal:Neutrodyne Circuit, 1922

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Docket #:2019-02

This is a draft proposal, that has not yet been submitted. To submit this proposal, click on the edit button in toolbar above, indicated by an icon displaying a pencil on paper. At the bottom of the form, check the box that says "Submit this proposal to the IEEE History Committee for review. Only check this when the proposal is finished" and save the page.


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? No

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? No

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? No

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? No


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1922

Title of the proposed milestone:

Netrodyne Circuit, 1922

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

The Neutrodyne Circuit was invented on this site in 1922 by Prof. Louis Alan Hazeltine. It used neutralizing capacitors to eliminate the squeals and other noise that previously plagued radio amplifiers. The Neutrodyne made radios easier to tune. These improvements in performance and simplicity rapidly expanded radio use from amateur radio operators to a mass consumer market. By 1923, 500 stations were broadcasting to about two million listeners.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

IEEE North Jersey Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: IEEE North Jersey Section
Senior Officer Name: {{{Senior officer name}}}

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: IEEE North Jersey Section
Senior Officer Name: {{{Senior officer name}}}

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):


Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Matt Tomaro
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Proposer name: Kit August
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

40.742550, -74.027143, 521 River St., Hoboken, NJ, U.S.A.

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. The intended site will probably be the wall or sidewalk along the River St. side of the Babbio complex. Babbio is a classroom and meeting space building owned by Stevens University.

Are the original buildings extant?

No. The Navy Building was demolished in February 1981. The site is now occupied by the Babbio Center. The original building where Hazeltine's laboratory was located was the Electrical Engineering Building of Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, where Hazeltine was head of the E.E. department. The building was originally the World War I large Navy Building at 521 River St. Hazeltine's office was in the south west corner of the 2nd floor. Other offices, classrooms, laboratories, and the model shop occupied the rest of the first and second floors. (source: The Early Days of Wheeler and Hazeltine Corporation, pg. 86)

Details of the plaque mounting:

To be determined.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?


Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Stevens Institute of Technology

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

In the autumn of 1922, Prof Alan Hazeltine designed a receiver using a Tuned Radio Frequency amplifier. Joseph Freed of the Freed-Eisemann Radio Corp. built the first model from plans supplied by Hazeltine. Hazeltine demonstrated the receiver on 2 March 1923 at a meeting of the Radio Club of America at Columbia University, New York City. Hazeltine Corporation stock began trading on 1 February 1924 on the Curb Exchange (now the AMEX).

A Hazeltine Neutrodyne receiver

The Neutrodyne was a circuit with an extra capacitor and two coils, which could completely stabilize a radio frequency amplifier. The circuit was usually designed with three tuned circuits and three dials, including two stages of radio frequency (RF) amplification and a tuned detector. Since a nonregenerative detector was used, the circuit was free of patent infringement.

To reduce magnetic coupling between the tuning coils, the three coils were assembled at a critical angle, mathematically derived by Hazeltine as 54.7 degrees. The three dials and the coils at this angle identified a 'Neutrodyne' receiver. The first sets were produced by Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation in 1923, and soon there were a number of licensees paying royalties to Hazeltine. He founded a research and consulting service, and was President of the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers) in 1936 -- John Ryder and Donald Fink, Engineers & Electrons, 1984, IEEE Press, p 76

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

To increase the ability of their [radio] receivers to pick up long-distance signals, some manufacturers included a stage of amplification ahead of the regenerative detector circuit. This made the circuit adjustment even more critical than in the regenerative detector alone, as internal feedback of signal allowed the first amplifier to become a potential oscillator, producing more receiver squeals-- John Ryder and Donald Fink, Engineers & Electrons, 1984, IEEE Press, p. 76

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?


Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.

Molnar, Mike, "Hazeltine, the Neutrodyne, and the Hazeltine Corporation," Antique Wireless Association Review, 2013, Vol. 26 (a copy of this article is on file at the History Center for reference by the proposers and the advocate)

Ryder, John and Fink, Donald, Engineers & Electrons, 1984 IEEE Press, pg 76. (The entire book is online at the URL below)

Wheeler, Harold A. Hazeltine the Professor, 1978, Greenlawn, N.Y.

Wheeler, Harold Alden, The Early Days of Wheeler and Hazeltine Corporation -- Profiles in Radio and Electronics," 1982, Greenlawn, N.Y.

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.

Hazeltine, L. A., "The Neutrodyne Receiver", 1923 The Stute

Ryder, John and Fink, Donald, Engineers & Electrons, 1984 IEEE Press, pg 76.

Biography of Alan Hazeltine

Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.