Allen Balcom DuMont, also spelled
Du Mont, (January 29, 1901 – November 14, 1965) was an American electronics engineer,
scientist and
inventor best known for improvements to the
cathode ray tube in 1931 for use in
television receivers. Seven years later he manufactured and sold the first commercially practical television set to the public. In June 1938, his Model 180 television receiver was the first all-electronic television set ever sold to the public, a few months prior to
RCA's first set in April 1939. In 1946, DuMont founded the first
television network to be licensed, the
DuMont Television Network, initially by linking station
WABD (named for DuMont) in
New York City to station W3XWT, which later became
WTTG, in
Washington, D.C. (WTTG was named for Dr.
Thomas T. Goldsmith, DuMont's Vice President of Research, and his best friend.) DuMont's successes in television picture tubes, TV sets and components and his involvement in commercial TV broadcasting made him the first millionaire in the business.