Background
Bown was born in Fairport, New York, and received his Mechanical Engineering, Master of Mechanical Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Cornell University where he also taught physics.
Bown was born in Fairport, New York, and received his Mechanical Engineering, Master of Mechanical Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Cornell University where he also taught physics.
Cornell Univercity, Mechanical Engineering, 1913, Master of Mechanical Engineering, 1915, Doctor of Philosophy, 1917.
He served as a captain in the United States Army Signal Corps in World War I, where he led vacuum tube development as head of its radio laboratories technical department, then joined the American Telephone and Telegraph Company research department, which in 1934 became Bell Laboratories. Bown"s work focused on electromagnetic propagation, particularly for radio broadcasting, ship-to-shore communication, aircraft radios, and intercontinental telephony. He was also an expert in radar, and served as a division member and consultant of the National Defense Research Committee and expert consultant to the Secretary of War.
In 1941 he visited England to study radar in combat operations.
Bown became research director at Bell Labs, and on June 30, 1948, led a press conference announcing the invention of the transistor.
Served at Lieutenant later captain, Signal corpus, United States army, 1917-1919. Member Radar Division, National Defense Research Committee. Member National Television Systems Committee, 1940-1941.
Fellow American Physical Society, Institute Radio Engineers (vice president 1925.
Member Sigma Xi, Eta Kappa Nu, Gamma Alpha.
Married Alma Crawford, June 28, 1919. Children: Ralph, Crawford.