Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr.: Grandfather of Video Games

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ we meet a technology enthusiast who creates the world’s first video game.

A Super Nintendo is running Street Fighter II on a cathode ray tube television at a retro gaming expo in Hong Kong. AFP/Getty Images

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.

Goldsmith grew up and began his career during what is considered the Golden Age of Physics. His passion for technology and physics led him to attend Furman University in his hometown of Greenville, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physics in 1931. He then earned his doctorate in physics from Cornell University in 1936.

A Beneficial Relationship

Two pages from "The Story of Television - DuMont Network," 1953, featuring an early television set and "the man who made it work," Allen B. Du Mont. Internet Archive. The Media Stash

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.

However, with the outbreak of war in Europe, which began shortly after the start of the World’s Fair, all production soon focused on creating oscillographs and conducting radar research.

Time for Gaming

Two men conducting electrical testing on a cathode-ray tube, circa 1950. Archive Photos/Getty Images

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.

After the war ended, Du Mont Laboratories returned to producing TVs, and, according to the Smithsonian Institution, became “the first company to market a postwar television set.” Along with his other responsibilities, Thompson, with the help of fellow Du Mont Laboratories employee Estle Ray Mann, began working with radar applications, along with electromagnetic beams and CRTs. They developed a rather complex, but fun system that had little to do with radar detection or any serious war-related issue. The radar and war applications were designed for entertainment.

In December 1947, Goldsmith and Mann submitted their patent application. They describe their invention as a “device with which a game can be played.” By using CRTs, “the trace of the ray or electron beam can be seen. One or more targets, such as pictures of airplanes, for example, are placed upon the face of the tube and controls are available to the player so that he can manipulate the trace or position. … The game can be made more spectacular, and the interest therein both from the player’s and the observer’s standpoint can be increased, by making a visible explosion of the cathode-ray beam take place when the target is hit.”

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.

Patent for "The Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device." Public Domain

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.

A Du Mont RA-101 "Custom": The wooden frame around the screen was probably added later instead of the original, as seen at the Early Television Museum. DogsRNice/CC BY-SA 4.0

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