Space Invaders! Pong! Computer Space! Those are some of the video games that people might consider being the first video games produced. Those three, released in 1978, 1972, and 1971, respectively, however, are relatively late in the creation of the first video game. In fact, the first was actually patented in 1948, though it has somewhat been lost to history.
Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. (1910–2009) was born in Greenville, South Carolina, to an insurance broker and a concert pianist. As a teenager, he became interested in radio technology, even building his own crystal radio sets, which were primitive radio signal receivers.
A Beneficial Relationship
While Goldsmith was working on his doctorate, he contacted Allen B. Du Mont, a leading inventor and scientist, who had risen to prominence for his work on the cathode ray tube (CRT) for televisions. When Goldsmith purchased a cathode ray tube from Du Mont, it launched a lasting friendship and, eventually, a working relationship between the two.
When Goldsmith completed his education at Cornell, Du Mont hired him as the director of research and development (R&D) for Du Mont Laboratories in Passaic, New Jersey. The company grew and sold a half interest to Paramount Pictures Corp. in 1938 in order to raise capital. By the following year, the company became the first to market home-based television sets. That same year, Du Mont Laboratories displayed their TV set at the New York World’s Fair.
Time for Gaming
Thompson, whose time at Du Mont spanned into the 1960s, was, according to the Library of Congress, in charge of R&D for the company’s “cathode-ray tubes, television systems, broadcasting apparatus, color television, cathode-ray oscillographs and measuring equipment, medical electronics, industrial and reconnaissance television, and navigational equipment.” Radar research, though, was where Thompson made a significant achievement, though it was nearly forgotten.
Gaming, TV, and Professorship
The duo received a patent for their “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device” in December the following year. There were many roadblocks to producing the “Amusement Device,” including cost, which kept it from being developed and mass produced.
Thompson, however, continued his very successful career, which included helping establish the TV visual standards with the Federal Communications Commission when he chaired the Synchronization Panel of the National Television System Committee (SPNTSC), and helping establish broadcast facilities for the new Du Mont Television Network. One facility was named after his initials, WTTG, which became the first television broadcasting station in Washington. The WTTG station continues to this day, now more commonly known as FOX 5 DC.
In 1966, Thompson returned to his alma mater to become professor of physics, retiring as professor emeritus in 1975. He was a fellow with the Radio Club of America, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Along with chairing the SPNTSC, he also chaired the Radio Manufacturers Association Committee on Cathode-Ray Tubes during World War II, which set standards for radio manufacturing.
It is interesting that the prediction about Thompson and Mann’s “Amusement Device” becoming “more spectacular, and the interest therein both from the player’s and the observer’s standpoint can be increased” would become a reality. Although Thompson is rarely given credit for the video game breakthrough, he was indeed the first to create such a device that would eventually result in what is now a multibillion dollar industry, earning him the nickname of the Grandfather of Video Games.
