- Edwin H. Colpitts
Edwin Henry Colpitts (
January 19 ,1872 - 1949) was a communications pioneer best known for his invention of theColpitts oscillator . As research branch chief forWestern Electric in the early 1900s, he and scienists under his direction achieved significant advances in the development ofoscillator s andvacuum tube push-pull amplifier s. In 1915, his team successfully demonstrated the first transatlantic radio telephone.Born in
Albert County, New Brunswick ,Canada , he began his education atMount Allison University and was later a teacher and school principal in Newfoundland. He later attendedHarvard University where he studied physics and mathematics. He received a Master's degree from Harvard in 1897. After two years spent at Harvard as a research assistant, in 1899 he accepted a position with American Bell Telephone Company. He moved to Western Electric in 1907. His colleague,Ralph Hartley invented an inductive coupling oscillator which Colpitts improved in 1915. It was first reported a paper he published, with Edward Craft, in 1919. He patented it as the "Oscillation Generator" in 1920.Western Electric research laboratories became part of Bell Laboratories in 1925. Colpitts reached the position of vice-president of
Bell Labs before retirement. He worked on US government committees working onsonar in the Second World War.Colpitts died in 1949.
References
* [http://home.swipnet.se/relp/radio/artiklar/colpitts/index.htm Colpitts biography from Swedish website]
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0007/MQ32404.pdf Thesis, "Design and Evaluation of a Ka-Band Colpitts VCO for Wireless Communications" by Scott R. McLeUand, Carleton University, 1998]Publications
* E. H. Colpitts and O.B.Blackwell, "Carrier Current Telephony and Telegraphy", Journal AIEE , vol. 40, no. 4, April 1921, 301-315; no. 5, May 1921, 410-421; no. 6, June 1921, 519-526.
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