Harold Alden Wheeler
| Harold Alden Wheeler | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 10, 1903 |
| Died | April 25, 1996 (aged 92) |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Electrical engineering |
| Notable awards | IEEE Medal of Honor (1964) |
Harold Alden Wheeler (May 10, 1903 - April 25, 1996) was a noted American electrical engineer.
Wheeler was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to William Archibald Wheeler and Harriet Marie Alden Wheeler (a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden), graduated in 1925 from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and was awarded the Ruggles Prize for excellence in Mathematics. Subsequently he studied physics at Johns Hopkins University until 1928. During his education he worked part-time at the National Bureau of Standards' Radio Laboratory, then from 1922 onwards with Prof. Louis Alan Hazeltine at Stevens Institute of Technology after discovering that they had independently invented the Neutrodyne receiver. (It entered large-scale production in 1923, and was the dominant receiver for most of the 1920s.)
In 1924 he became Hazeltine Corporation's first employee, and in 1925 created the first radio receiver with a diode automatic volume control that maintained a constant sound level while tuning to broadcasts of differing strengths. AM radio receivers incorporating this circuit came into use about 1930, and it has been included in every set since. He led the Hazeltine laboratory 1930-1939, and during this time received patents for 126 inventions on a wide range of work including circuits, test equipment, acoustics, antennas, transmission lines, methods of calculation for inductance of coils (included in all relevant textbooks since the mid-1930s), skin effect, coupled circuit theory, television scanning theory, and analysis and design of wide-band TV amplifiers.
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