John Austin Victoreen (July 4, 1902 – May 5, 1986) was a self-taught physicist, engineer, inventor and otologist. He founded the Victoreen Instrument Company and was the author of two books, various technical papers on radiation and sound waves, and holder of over 30 patents.
Career
Amateur Radio
Victoreen began his career in Cleveland, Ohio as a radio and radio parts manufacturer in the early 1920s ( QSL card 8ACH ) . At age 23 he had already received the first of many patents, this one for a high frequency tuning device that could be used in systems with radio frequency amplifiers of constant frequency. He had started a radio parts business and became interested in designing and building high quality radio receivers, some of which still exist today.[1] His Heterodyne was considered by some to be the "Rolls-Royce" of radios.[2]
Radiation Measurement
His interest soon turned to radiation measurement. In 1928 he founded the Victoreen Instrument Company in Cleveland Heights, OH and began to manufacture an x-ray dosimeter invented by Hugo Fricke and Otto Glasser.[3][4] The first commercial model was the Condenser-R meter, which accurately measured the intensity and total dosage of X-ray exposure, and he gained international fame for this. He also developed other radiation measurement devices and his company provided 95% of the instrumentation for the Bikini atomic tests after World War II. His company was considered to be the "first nuclear company".[5]
During World War II, Victoreen was contracted by the Manhattan Project to develop portable radiation devices as part of the highly secret Operation Peppermint project leading up to D-Day.[6]
Otology
Victoreen moved to Colorado Springs in 1950 and was on the staff as a consulting physicist at the Medical Center there. His interest in audio power amplification and frequency response led him into the field of otology and otometry.[7] He moved from Colorado Springs to Maitland, FL in 1962 [8]
Personal life
Victoreen was born to Ernest and Anne (Austin) Victoreen in 1902. He married Francis S. Shima, and they had two children: Jacqueline Ann (later Weir) and Robert Roy. Francis died in 1968 and he was remarried to Lizzie Louise (Bush) Sturges Feb 11, 1970.[9][10]
^Victoreen, LL.D., John A. (1973). Basic Principles of Otometry. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas Bannerstone House. ISBN0398026165. LCCN72-84151.
^Victoreen, John A. (Feb 1943). "AIP Scitation". Journal of Applied Physics. 14 (2). USA: American Institute of Physics: 95–102. doi:10.1063/1.1714956.
^Victoreen, John A. (1937). "The Thimble Ionization Chamber". Radiology. 29 (3). USA: Radiological Society of No. America: 341–345. doi:10.1148/29.3.341.
^Victoreen, John A. (1948). "AIP Scitation". Journal of Applied Physics. 19 (9). USA: American Institute of Physics: 855–860. doi:10.1063/1.1698220.
^Victoreen, J. A. (February 1949). "Ionization Chambers". Proceedings of the IRE. 37 (2): 189–199. doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1949.230945.
^Victoreen, John A. (Dec 1949). "AIP Scitation". Journal of Applied Physics. 20 (12). USA: American Institute of Physics: 1141–1147. doi:10.1063/1.1698286.
^Victoreen, J. A. (April 1949). "Electrometer Tubes for the Measurement of Small Currents". Proceedings of the IRE. 37 (4): 432–441. doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1949.232315. S2CID51634667.
^Glasser, Otto, ed. (1950). Medical Physics Vol II. Chicago: Year Book Publishers.
^Victoreen, John A. (Feb 1974). "Equal loudness pressures determined with a decaying oscillatory waveform". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 55 (2): 309–312. Bibcode:1974ASAJ...55..309V. doi:10.1121/1.1914503. PMID4821834.
^Victoreen, John A. (Nov 1931). "Correction Factors for Barometric Pressure and Temperature as Applied to X-Ray Measuring Devices Calibrated in International Roentgens". Radiology. 17 (5). USA: 1014–1017. doi:10.1148/17.5.1014.
