Abstract :
Recounts the circumstances surrounding the development of FM radio and and patent and legal issues that eventually led to the suicide of its inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong. "Major" Armstrong, as he became known to friends after his commission in World War I, had spent most of his career defending his legal credentials as a great inventor in an area in which he had received about 50 patents and had conceived the regenerative feedback circuit, the superhetrodyne receiver, the superregenerative receiver, and FM broadcasting. His peers had recognized his accomplishments with awards several times, but his legal battles had reached a breaking point. Five years before his suicide, he had filed suits against RCA and NBC for infringement on his FM patents. After Armstrong\´s tragic death, his wife, Marion, took up his cause. Ultimately, all 21 suits of infringement on his FM patents by RCA and NBC were decided in his favor.
