Considering the service performed by Armstrong, and his standing among his men and superior officers, this memo must have been hard to send -- as well as receive.
Armstrong would apply for a French patent on his
second great invention, the superheterodyne circuit, in December
of 1918. He would apply for a U.S. patent in February of 1919
(issued in June of 1920, #1,342,885). However, as would happen to
Armstrong time and again, the story does not stop there. His U.S.
patent was overturned by the U.S. District Court of Appeals of
the District of Columbia in December of 1928. A Frenchman, Lucian
Levy, would be judged to have disclosed the basic principals of
the circuit in 1917.
So why do so many consider Armstrong to be the inventor of the
superheterodyne circuit? Walter Shottky may have stated it best
in 1926: "The "word" seems, at any rate, to have
been far less important than the "deed," and there
appears to be no doubt that it is Mr. Armstrong and his
collaborators to whom we owe the deed, which has made the
super-heterodyne method such an invaluable instrumentality in
radio engineering." (Must reading is "Who Invented the
Superheterodyne?" by Alan S. Douglas, The Legacies of Edwin
Howard Armstrong, published by The Radio Club of America, 1990.)
Documents pertaining to Armstrong's French patent application.
Armstrong, General Ferrie and Professor Abraham in front of the Eiffel Tower, 1918.
