This chapter discusses the following: When and where was A.D. Blumlein born? What were the influences which affected him during his formative period? Where was he employed? With whom did he work? How did he undertake his creative activities? What were his contributions to society? Certainly Blumlein's original contributions to knowledge and to the well-being of mankind were very great. As Isaac Shoenberg, the Director of Research at Electric and Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI), said after Blumlein's tragic death at the age of just 38 years, 'There was not a single subject to which he turned his mind that he did not enrich extensively'. Blumlein's work embraced the fields of telephony, electrical measurements, monophonic recording and reproduction, stereophonic recording and reproduction, high definition television, antennas, cables, electronics generally, and radar. When he was killed in June 1942, the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, described his loss as a 'national loss', and the Daily Telegraph wrote of his death as a 'national disaster'.

Inspec keywords: biographies; history

Other keywords: my six serving men; Rudyard Kipling; stereophonic recording; short poem; A.D. Blumlein

Subjects: Biographical, historical, and personal notes