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The cathode-ray tube amusement device was invented by physicists [[Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr.]] and Estle Ray Mann. The pair worked at television designer [[DuMont Laboratories]] in [[Passaic, New Jersey]] specializing in the development of cathode ray tubes that used electronic signal outputs to project a signal onto television screens.<ref name="CRTAD_about.com"/><ref name="TCW140141"/> Goldsmith, who had received a Ph.D. in physics from [[Cornell University]] in 1936 with a focus on oscilloscope design, was at the time of the device's invention the director of research for DuMont Laboratories.<ref name="Dumont"/> The two inventors were inspired by the [[radar]] displays used in [[World War II]], which Goldsmith had worked on during the war.<ref name="CRTAD_about.com"/><ref name="GoldsmithInterview"/> The patent for the device was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14, 1948.<ref name="CRTAD_CRT game patent"/> The patent, the first for an electronic game,<ref name="patents"/> was never used by either the inventors or DuMont Laboratories, and the device was never manufactured beyond the original handmade prototype.<ref name="BTC"/><ref name="Replay50s"/> [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] historian Alex Magoun has speculated that Goldsmith did not make the prototype with the intent for it to be the basis of any future production, but only designed the device as a demonstration of the kind of commercial opportunities DuMont could pursue.<ref name="PopMech"/> Video game historian Alexander Smith has also speculated that DuMont's ongoing financial issues prevented any investment into a new product.<ref name="TCW140141"/> Goldsmith did not work on games after the invention of the device; he was promoted to vice president in 1953 and left DuMont—by then split up and sold to other firms—to become a professor of physics at [[Furman University]] in 1966.<ref name="PopMech"/><ref name="GoldsmithInterview"/> Goldsmith kept the device and brought it with him to Furman; in a 2016 interview fellow physics professor Bill Brantley recalled Goldsmith demonstrating the game to him.<ref name="PopMech"/>
Despite being a game that used a graphical display, the cathode-ray tube amusement device is generally not considered under most definitions to be a candidate for the first [[video game]], as it used purely analog hardware and did not run on a computing device; some loose definitions may still consider it a video game, but it is still usually disqualified as the device was never manufactured.
==See also==
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