Peter Carl Goldmark facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Carl Goldmark
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| Born |
Péter Károly Goldmark
December 2, 1906 |
| Died | December 7, 1977 (aged 71) Port Chester, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Citizenship | Hungarian, American |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Children | Peter C. Goldmark Jr. |
| Engineering career | |
| Institutions | Columbia Records |
| Projects | Long-playing (LP) phonograph Color television |
Peter Carl Goldmark was a brilliant Hungarian-American engineer. He was born as Péter Károly Goldmark on December 2, 1906, and passed away on December 7, 1977. While working at Columbia Records, he played a huge role in creating the long-playing (LP) phonograph disc. This special record could hold much more music than older ones. It became the main way to listen to long songs or many songs on one disc for many years. Columbia Records introduced the LP in 1948. Goldmark was also known as one of "The Martians," a group of talented Hungarian scientists who moved to the United States.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Peter Carl Goldmark had a family with six children. He had three sons, Peter Jr., Christopher, and Andrew, and one daughter, Frances, from his first marriage. Later, he married again and had two more children, Jonathan and Susan.
Amazing Inventions and Career
Besides inventing the LP record, Goldmark worked on many other cool things at CBS. He developed a special way to create color television.
Early Color TV Technology
Goldmark's color TV system was first shown on August 29, 1940. It used a fast-spinning color wheel with red, green, and blue sections. This wheel helped send color pictures. However, this system was not compatible with the black-and-white TVs people already owned. This meant you needed a special adapter to watch it.
Competition and New Standards
Even though CBS did broadcast in color using Goldmark's system for a short time (1950–1951), another company, RCA, developed a different color TV system. RCA's system was "compatible," meaning it worked with existing black-and-white TVs. While Goldmark's system had good picture quality, the compatibility issue made RCA's system more popular. In 1953, RCA's system became the standard for color television.
Interestingly, cameras using Goldmark's color wheel system were still used for scientific research for many years. For example, they were used to capture color images of the moon's surface during the NASA Apollo moon landings in the 1970s!
Electronic Video Recording (EVR)
After the success of the LP record, Goldmark spent about 20 years at CBS Laboratories. He worked on many inventions, and one of the most important was the EVR. This was a very advanced home video player. It used film reels stored in plastic cases to save video and audio.
The EVR was first announced in 1967. A black-and-white version was shown in 1969, with promises of color versions later. However, this invention faced challenges. It was difficult and expensive to make. Also, CBS worried about competition from other home video devices, especially those that could record. This fear turned out to be true as home video recorders became very popular later on.
Awards and Later Life
Peter Carl Goldmark received many important awards for his work. In 1969, he was given the Elliott Cresson Medal. He also received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1970.
On November 22, 1977, the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, honored Goldmark with the National Medal of Science. This award recognized his important contributions to communication, which helped education, entertainment, culture, and human service.
Sadly, Peter Carl Goldmark passed away at the age of 71 on December 7, 1977, in a car accident in Westchester County, New York.
See also
In Spanish: Peter Goldmark para niños
- The Martians (scientists)
