U.S 1983 Inventors Stamp Issue

This block of four stamps honors the contributions of American inventors Charles Steinmetz, Edwin Armstrong, Nikola Tesia and Philo T. Farnsworth.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, who did pioneering research on the theories of alternating current and high voltage power, was born in Breslau, Germany, on April 9, 1865, and emigrated to America 1889.

Edwin Howard Armstrong was born in New York City on December 18, 1890. His crowning achievement was the invention of wide-band frequency modulation in 1933, now commonly referred to as FM radio.

Nikola Tesia was born in 1857, at Smiljan Lika, Croatia (Austria-Hungary), and came to the United States in 1884. Of the more than 700 inventions, the most noteworthy was the creation of the induction motor.

Philo T. Farnsworth was born in Beaver, Utah, on August 19. 1906. Of the more than 300 major accomplishments to his credit, the most famous is the first all-electronic television transmission. which was made in San Francisco, California, on September 7, 1927.

Designer: Dennis Lyall

Issued: Washington, D.C. September 21

Philo T Farnsworth

Above: Philo T. Farmsworth, the inventor of electronic television, at work in his laboratory. Photograph courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Charles Steinmetz

Above: Before the work of Charles V. Steinmetz, electrical designs could only be tested after they were built, Steinmetz, whose work included hundreds of other inventions, developed practical methods for calculating the performance of these designs beforehand. Painting by Dean Cornwell, photograph courtesy of General Electric Photo Unit.

Nikola Tesla

Above: Nikola Tesla seated amid discharge streamers of several million volts at the Colorado Springs experimental station, 1899. Development of the Niagara Falls power station is attributed largely to the work of Tesla and Steinmetz.

Professor Edwin H. Armstrong

Above: Professor Edwin H. Armstrong of Columbia University “riding the bosun’s chair” while working on the pioneering radio antenna that made possible the first FM broadcasts in 1939. The antenna towered over Professor Armstrong’s station W2XMN in Alpine, New Jersey. Photograph courtesy of Columbia University, New York City.