Allen Balcom DuMont, also spelled Du Mont, (January 29, 1901 – November 14, 1965) was an American electronics engineer, scientist and inventor who improved the cathode-ray tube in 1931 for use in television receivers.

He improved his set each time he rebuilt it and later built a transmitter, while his father obtained the landlord's permission to erect a 30-foot-high (9.1 m) transceiving antenna on the roof.

He graduated from Montclair High School in 1919, and went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he was part of the Alpha chapter of the Theta Xi fraternity.

The following summer, he worked as a radio operator aboard a coastal steamer making runs from New York to Providence, Rhode Island.

After graduating from Rensselaer in 1924, DuMont worked at the Westinghouse Lamp Company in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in charge of radio tube production.

DuMont subsequently resigned at the same time that De Forest sold his radio manufacturing business to David Sarnoff at RCA.

[4][5] He started his own company, Allen B. DuMont Laboratories,[6] in the basement of his Upper Montclair, NJ home, building long-lasting cathode-ray tubes.

DuMont was one of the earliest designers of the triggered sweep oscilloscope using a gas thyratron vacuum tube (forerunner to the silicon controlled rectifier or SCR).

[8] In 1947, a young equipment manufacturer called Tektronix produced the model 511 Time Base Trigger and Sweep Oscilloscope for $795.

He tried it and was impressed, but commented to Howard Vollum and Jack Murdock, co-founders of Tektronix that it was too expensive and they would be lucky to sell any.

[13] During the early years of World War II, DuMont received special government contracts to provide large 36 inches (91 cm) wide cathode-ray tubes.

In 1932, DuMont proposed a "ship finder" device to the United States Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, that used radio wave distortions to locate objects on a cathode-ray tube screen, a type of radar.

The military asked him, however, not to take out a patent because they wanted to maintain secrecy, so he is seldom mentioned among those responsible for radar.

Magic eye tubes provided radio designers with a less expensive and more profitable way to add a feature usually found in higher priced equipment.

The general public reception was a success as customers liked the green glow and the seemingly magical way it worked.

DuMont produced black and white televisions in the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s that were generally regarded as offering highest quality and durability.

[2] The television center at Montclair State University bears his name and produces programs for the NJTV system (formerly New Jersey Network).