Lucien Lévy

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Lucien Lévy (born March 11, 1892 in Paris ; † May 24, 1965 there ) was a French engineer and inventor. He is considered the inventor of the heterodyne receiver ( superheterodyne ).

life and work

Levy studied at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris and was about to graduate when the First World War broke out. During the First World War he served in building radio technology for military purposes under Gustave-Auguste Ferrié and in 1916 became head of laboratory at the center for radio technology ( center radiotélégraphique militaire ) of the French military based in the Eiffel Tower . There he developed the superheterodyne receiver, set down in writing in August 1917 and October 1, 1918, which later became the basis of patent litigation in the USA against Edwin Howard Armstrong .

The superposition process was first proposed by Hogan in 1913 and Round obtained a patent application in the same year , but first Lucien Lévy (1917) and finally Edwin Howard Armstrong - in October 1917 assigned as an officer in the US Army to the same Paris laboratory where Lévy was active - developed useful radio circuits from it. Lévy was later awarded the rights in a lawsuit. By the way, Armstrong applied for his patent from Paris.

The patent with application date August 4, 1917 has the following claim: "Reception and amplification method for wireless telegraphy and telephony , characterized in that after converting the reception frequency into a local frequency above the audibility limit and the energy of this new frequency was amplified".

In the mid-1920s, Lévy mentioned in advertisements, e.g. B. in "Radio Sport" that 65 companies build superhets based on his patents. In fact, Lévy sold his rights to AT&T, which enforced all of Lévy's patent claims against Armstrong until 1929.

The term intermediate frequency comes from Lévy , and he pointed out the possibility of multiple superpositions. While Lévy wanted pure reception, Armstrong was concerned with selectivity and the large and simple possibility of amplifying a fixed intermediate frequency. In his patent application Armstrong also pointed out that now - indirectly - wavelengths below 100 m can easily be amplified.

In France (Lévy patent) the Super was the standard receiver in the mid-1920s - together with a loop antenna - because the size of the country and the low density of transmitters required high sensitivity and high performance.

Under the manufacturer's name Radio-LL, Lucien Lévy launched the Hétérodyne [Biraud] model in 1922, a component as a heterodyne oscillator , as well as the component with display instrument and two tubes and the entire “Superheterodyne” kit with 12 tubes. This combination of four modules with three display instruments was the professional variant. As “Audionette” or “Superhétérodynette” in 1922, however, the superhet could also be put together as desired. In German, collectors also call such compilations of finished units "D-Zug". In 1922, Radio-LL shows a ten-part express train as a superheterodynette [Biraud]. In 1925 the world's first superheterodyne was offered as a portable (suitcase) radio: Superhétérodyne A Modèle Portable Valise.

In 1924 he opened a private radio station, called Radio LL (wavelength 368 m, transmission power 0.5 kW).

Lévy is also credited with being one of the first tube radio receivers in airplanes, and in 1926 one of the first receivers designed to be protected from dust and moisture in cars was introduced: Superhétérodyne Modèle Portatif Type Auto. 1929 his company receives from the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale commissioned the 27 ground stations Airmail line Toulouse - Casablanca - Dakar - Natal - Buenos Aires - Santiago de Chile with Shortwave - radios and medium wave equip -Peilanlagen. The aircraft's on-board systems are also supplied by Lévy's company.

Lucien Lévy was not only an engineer and practitioner, he was also one of the leading representatives of the young radio industry. In 1922 he became president of the employers' association Chambre Syndicale de la TSF and in 1925 president of the Syndicat Professionnel des Industries Radioélectriques .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent FR493660 : Système de transmission électrique à distance, applicable particulièrement à la télégraphie et téléphonie sans fil. Registered on August 4, 1917 , published on August 19, 1919 (patent status as of May 19, 1919). ‌
  2. ^ Hugh GJ Aitken: The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900-1932 . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1985, ISBN 0-691-08376-2 .
  3. ^ A b Albert Vasseur: De la TSF à l'électronique . Editions Techniques et Scientifiques Françaises, Paris 1975.
personal data
SURNAME Lévy, Lucien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1965
Place of death Paris