Edwin Howard was born in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York back to 1890 to John and Emily. When he was 8 he contracted Sydenham’s chorea, for the rest of his life he had a physical tic, exacerbated by excitement or stress. His disability caused him to withdraw for public school, deciding to be home-schooled.
In 1909, he enrolled at Columbia University, graduating in 1913 with an electrical engineering degree. During WWI, he served in the Signal Corps as a captain being promoted to major before the end of the conflict. In 1934, he was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia where he remained for the rest of his life. He died in 1954, he was 63.
What you may not know about Edwin Howard Armstrong is that he held 42 patents and was the first to receive the Medal of Honor awarded by the Institute of Radio Engineers, the French Legion of Honor the Franklin Medal and in 1942 the Edison Medal. He is best known for developing the FM (frequency modulation) radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the International Telecommunication Union’s roster of great inventors.
Until tomorrow give someone the free gift of a smile.
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