Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

The collection consists of Skorino's correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, printed materials and drawings. The correspondence, primarily from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, is chiefly of a personal nature as are the documents. The manuscripts, photographs, and printed materials pertain in large measure to the activities of the Egerskiĭ Polk, its veterans' organization in Belgium, and to other military veterans' organizations in exile. Of particular note are two dozen glass negatives of photographs of Russian military life in the World War I era.

Correspondence, art work, and memorabilia of Rood, including letters to Rood from colleagues, scientists, and artists including Albert Bierstadt, Arthur J. Evans, Joseph Henry, and Charles Eliot Norton. Family letters to and from his wife, Matilda, and children; letters from his wife to her mother, Anna Prunner, in Germany; sketchbooks, drawings, and etchings of Rood and his son, Roland Rood; and photographs and memorabilia.

Professional and personal files including Armstrong's correspondence with professional associations, other engineers, and friends, his research notes, circuit diagrams, lectures, articles, legal papers, and other related materials. Of his many inventions and developments, the most important are: 1) the regenerative or feedback circuit, 1912, the first amplified radio reception, 2) the superheterodyne circuit, 1918, the basis of modern radio and radar, 3) superregeneration, 1922, a very simple, high-power receiver now used in emergency mobile service, and 4) frequency modulation - FM, 1933, static-free radio reception of high fidelity. More than half the files concern his many lawsuits, primarily with Radio Corporation of America, over infringement of the Armstrong patents. Litigation continued until 1967. Other files deal with his work in the Marcellus Hartley Research Laboratory at Columbia University, 1913-1935, and with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I, his Air Force contracts for communications development, Army research during World War II, the Radio Club of America, the Institute of Radio Engineers, FM development at his radio station at Alpine, N.J., the use of FM in television, his involvement in Federal Communications Commission hearings and legislation, and his work with the Zenith Radio Corporation. Also, letters to H.J. Round