Edwin H. ArmstrongArticle Free Pass Edwin H. Armstrong, in full
Edwin Howard Armstrong (born December 18, 1890, New York, New
York, U.S.—died January 31/February 1, 1954, New York City),
American inventor who laid the foundation for much of modern
radio and electronic circuitry, including the regenerative and
superheterodyne circuits and the frequency modulation (FM)
system. Armstrong was from a genteel, devoutly Presbyterian
family of Manhattan. His father was a publisher and his mother a
former schoolteacher. Armstrong was a shy boy interested from
childhood in engines, railway trains, and all mechanical
contraptions. At age 14, fired by reading of the exploits of
Guglielmo Marconi in sending the first wireless message across
the Atlantic Ocean, Armstrong decided to become an inventor. He
built a maze of wireless apparatus in his family’s attic and
began the solitary, secretive work that absorbed his life.
Except for a passion for tennis and, later, for fast motor cars,
he developed no other significant int