Dana M. Raymond was Edwin Howard Armstrong's attorney during the legal struggles over the FM patent.

Armstrong didn't invent frequency modulation--it was known, but it didn't have any commercial or practical advantages evident to those working in the field. The theory and practice in radio at that time was that, in order to get a good signal and reduce the effects of noise, the bandwidth being transmitted should be as narrow as possible, and the signal should be strong. The receiver and antennas were made to receive only over a relatively narrow band. In those days, getting rid of static or reducing interference in a radio signal was considered to be impossible.

Armstrong's invention of wideband FM was characterized as a static eliminator, and accordingly would be as impractical as a perpetual motion machine. A perpetual motion machine was "known" by physicists to be impossible--there is friction in any mechanical device, and the friction would use up the energy that made the machine go and it would stop. In radio, there would be no way of distinguishing between noise and static, which was created in the receiver.

Armstrong's wideband invention was disclosed in his patent issued on December 26, 1933. The Major, as Armstrong was also known, had quite a bit of experience writing patents, and he wrote that patent in his own hand from the first line to the end. He got a lawyer, a friend of his at Columbia, to write the claims of the patent at the end, which point out and distinctly claim the invention.

Armstrong first showed his invention to David Sarnoff, his friend at RCA, whose reaction was that it was too big an apparatus, that the receiver would occupy an entire table, and that it was a totally different system, rather than an improvement, which would completely replace the AM equipment being used by the public. This was a problem for Sarnoff.

RCA went on developing television, but some companies, including General Electric and Stromberg Carlson, were interested and took a license from Armstrong under his patents for his new system of broadcasting. In the 1930s, the Cravath firm worked out a system of royalties, which came to about 1 percent of the price of the receiver to the manufacturer, which was about half the retail price.

The Houck Collection

Armstrong in uniform in front of the Eiffel Tower, 1918.

When the war came on, all commercial production was stopped because of demands for production of military radio equipment. Armstrong granted a license to the United States government under his patents. When he began working for the army developing new equipment, the first thing he did, against the advice of his lawyers, was write to the Secretary of War and waive all royalties for the duration of the emergency on anything used by the United States government. He wished to ensure that his advice to the government on military equipment would not be discounted by reason of any apparent pecuniary motivation in giving the advice.

After the war, commercial manufacturing resumed and his licenses continued, and Armstrong started to receive royalties. But a number of big companies just didn't take a license. And his patent was running out. For the last three or four years there had been much commercial production for television sound using FM, and no royalties were being paid to him. RCA had a lot to do with that. His patent expired in 1950, and because of the statute of limitations, he was required to file suit against these companies if he was to recover damages.

The statute of limitations in patent law says that recovery for infringement can be made only for the six years preceding the filing of the suit, and no more--six years back was free and clear. He filed suit in 1951 or '52. When he died, in 1954, thinking he was broke, his estate consisted of these commenced but unresolved lawsuits.

I knew the Major, and I got involved at the end of the war. The litigations went on for six years. One case, against the Emerson Company, was in New York before Judge Palmieri. I thought the case should be decided by a judge and not by a jury. I was advised by top lawyers at Cravath that, since this was a case of a man against a big company, it ought to be a jury case. But I didn't think a jury would understand, and even if they found in favor of Armstrong, the patent would just be infringed again and start another suit. But if it was tried before a judge who, under the practice of law, had to write his findings of fact and reasons and conclusions of law, that would set precedent and influence others. That was my theory at the time and that's how it turned out.

	Discussion
	Many of Edwin Armstrong's achievements, including the invention of the regenerative circuit and the significance of frequency modulation, were recognized only years after his death. {Dis: Why do you think it took so long for the public to acknowledge Armstrong accomplishments?}

To the surprise of many people, we won right down the line. Judge Edmund Palmieri wrote findings setting out all the technological facts and the conclusions of the law. Emerson filed an appeal, but Emerson's lawyer on the appeal happened to know a lot about patent matters, so the case was settled. They agreed to pay the royalties they would have paid if they had taken the license six years before, with no interest. Many other settlements followed on the same basis--no exemplary damages, no interest, just what would have been paid originally for the license.

But Motorola in Chicago wouldn't settle, so we went to trial all over again. Judge Robson in Chicago felt the case would be helped if a court expert could hear the case. One of the incidents raised at the trial concerned Major Armstrong applying at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for adoption of the FM system in 1936. At that time he had his system working in the Empire State Building. He made recordings of a signal sent from the Empire State Building to West Hampton, Long Island. He also recorded a 50 kilowatt AM clear channel station over the same range, and a 1 kilowatt shortwave AM station. He presented these to the FCC in his pitch to have FM channels set up for broadcasting.

We played those recordings in court in Chicago for Dean Towne, the court expert. I simply asked him one question: Here are the recordings, and what did you think of them? He said, "Well I'd heard that there had been such recordings at the FCC, but I hadn't heard them. I could not help but be impressed with how surprising they must have been back in 1936, when frequency modulation was not known. The difference in sound between wideband FM and shortwave AM, at the same frequency and on a clear channel station of 50 kilowatts, is so striking it's just pathetic. There is no comparison."

So Motorola settled. Major Armstrong died thinking he was broke, yet he left a very well-to-do widow. And he was completely vindicated on his contributions to radio.