Frank Gray (physicist)

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Frank Gray (born September 13, 1887 in Alpine, Indiana, † May 23, 1969 ) was an American physicist and researcher at Bell Laboratories , the original development division of the Bell Telephone Company , which was founded in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell . Between 1925 and 1955 he made a major contribution to the development of telecommunications and television . Probably the best-known discovery of Gray today is the Gray code named after him , which among other things serves as a coding method for the transmission of digital quantities via analog signal paths and is also used in mathematics. Gray had this previously known coding option patented in the USA in 1953 .

Illustration of the “PCM tube” from the patent specification.

The first significant scientific paper written by Gray was a proposal in 1927 for the use of a kind of flying spot scanner in television cameras. A special picture tube is used on which a point of light moves in the television grid. This point of light shines through the film image and is directed to a photocell , where a line-by-line image of the brightness and color information of the film image is created. Three years later, further research led to the development of a two-way mechanical scanning system.

With Herbert Ives, he submitted two further patents on “electro-optical systems” and “electro-optical transmission” in 1927, which were recognized in 1930 and 1936, respectively.

Together with Pierre Mertz , Gray wrote a well-known and well-known essay on the mathematics of the raster method in 1934 . He later contributed to the beginnings of the "digital revolution" by, together with Raymond Sears , William Goodall , John Robinson Pierce and other Bell Labs employees, provided the binary code that was used by Sears in his PCM tube .

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  1. ↑ Frank Gray. on: findagrave.com
  2. ↑ a b Frank Gray: Pulse code communication. March 17, 1953. U.S. Patent No. 2,632,058.
  3. ^ F. Gray, JW Horton, RC Mathes: The production and utilization of television signals. In: Trans. AIEE. 46, June 1927, pp. 918-939.
  4. ^ F. Gray: The use of a moving beam of light to scan a scene for television. In: J. OSA. March 16, 1928.
  5. ^ HE Ives, F. Gray, MW Baldwin: Image Transmission System for Two-Way Television. In: Bell System Technical Journal. July 1930, pp. 449-469.
  6. ↑ P. Mertz, F. Gray: A Theory of Scanning and Its Relation to the Characteristics of the Transmitted Signal in Telephotography and Television. In: Bell System Technical Journal. Ed. 13, July 1934, pp. 464-515.
  7. ^ WM Goodall: Television by Pulse Code Modulation. In: Bell Sys. Tech. J. Ed. 30, 1951, pp. 33-49.

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personal data
SURNAME Gray, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Alpine, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1969