The RCA Selectron

Richard L. Snyder, Jr.    November 1, 1911 -- May 30, 1996

Richard Lee Snyder, Jr.
November 1, 1911 -- May 30, 1996



Photograph courtesy Lee Snyder Hinton



有ehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1930 - 1934, Student, BSEE



























Lehigh University. The Epitome 1935. Bethlehem (Pa.): Senior Class of 1935.
Special Collections, Linderman Library.
Used by permission of Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries.




友arnsworth Television Corporation, Philadelphia, PA, 1934 - 1937

Cartoon of photo of Snyder with Farnsworth holding a cathode ray tube
Photograph of Richard Snyder with Philo Farnsworth examining a cathode ray tube., August 24, 1934


This is a link to Getty Images, the license holder of the actual photograph.

This link will take you away from the RCASelectron pages.



US Patent 2168052 - Stabilized oscillator circuit for multipactor electron multiplier

US Patent 2172155 - Electron multiplier tube

US Patent 2203048 - Shielded anode electron multiplier

US Patent 2208938 - Reduced space charge divided stream electron multiplier

US Patent 2226077 - Radio frequency electron multiplier tube

US Patent 2233878 - Box dynode electron multiplier tube

US Patent 2257985 - High current density electron multiplier structure






由adio Corporation of America, Camden, NJ and Princeton, NJ, 1937 - 1945

























clearance and attribution pending



US Patent 2198227 - Electron multiplier

US Patent 2198233 - Electron-multiplier system

US Patent 2231691 - Electron multiplier

US Patent 2231692 - Electron multiplier; 931 PMT type design

US Patent 2231697 - Electron multiplier

US Patent 2285126 - Electron multiplier; 931 PMT design

US Patent 2290775 - Stabilization of photoelectric electron multipliers

US Patent 2330930 - Scanning type of electron microscope

US Patent 2348030 - Scanning type of electron microscope

US Patent 2372450 - Electron optical instrument

US Patent 2404106 - Electronic calculating device; Counting CRT

US Patent 2424289 - Calculating device; Computron

US Patent 2425131 - Electronic computing circuit

US Patent 2431591 - Electronic computer

US Patent 2433236 - Electronic computing device

US Patent 2436677 - Incremental deflection of cathode ray beam

US Patent 2441296 - Computer system

US Patent 2449792 - Cathode ray tube scanning circuit

US Patent 2454410 - Cathode beam tube and circuit therefor; Barrier grid storage tube

US Patent 2456029 - Thermionic tube circuits

US Patent 2462292 - Light interference distance measuring device having photoelectric means

US Patent 2464420 - Storage type cathode-ray tube

US Patent 2470875 - Storage tube

US Patent 2471788 - Electronic computer

US Patent 2571991 - Color television tube

US Patent 2618762 - Target and circuit for storage tubes

US Patent 2658670 - Rate determing device


裕elecon Corporation, New York City, NY, 1945 - 1947

US Patent 2501637 - Electron signal storage tube

US Patent 2557480 - Selector switching apparat





悠nstitute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, for six months in 1947


誘niversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA late 1947 - 1949, Project manager and Chief Engineer on EDVAC


誘S Army Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 1949 - 1952, Project manager and Chief Engineer on EDVAC

























clearance and attribution pending



Revised EDVAC design:

Finally the task of project manager and chief engineer
was given to Richard L. Snyder who saw the project through to the point where a machine
was actually shipped from the Moore School to the Army's
Ballistic Research Laboratories at the Aberdeen Proving
Ground in Maryland. Snyder left the Moore School at this
time and followed the machine to the Ballistic Research
Laboratory.
Williams, M., The Origins, Uses, and Fate of the EDVAC, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 22-39, 1993


I would like to mention, in addition to all the pioneer names mentioned,
a Mr. Richard L. Snyder, who worked on the earliest television,
designed power amplifier tubes,light amplifier tubes,
designed most of the EDVAC circuitry, and the first pulse circuitry
and pulse switching power supply, which is in prevalent use today.
He designed the first synchronous drum and was the brains behind the technology
research for digital systems at BRL. [US Army Ballistics Research Laboratory]
He re-used WWII radar technology to assemble EDVAC.
John Gregory November 1996
50 Years of Army Computing From ENIAC to MSRC, Army Research Lab, Aberdeen Proving Ground, pp 73, September 2000





佑onsulting engineer, (own laboratory) Moorestown, N.J. 1952 - 1959

US Patent 2849624 - Saturable reactance circuits

US Patent 2886790 - Saturable reactance flip-flop device

US Patent 2901731 - Switch devices


幽ughes Aircraft Company, Fullerton, Calif. and Malibu, CA., 1959 to early 1964

US Patent 3137845 - High density shift register

US Patent 3241127 - Magnetic domain shifting memory

US Patent 3148358 - High speed memory elements

US Patent 3160864 - Random access high speed memory

US Patent 3241126 - Magnetic shift register

US Patent 3248716 - Multichannel shift register system

US Patent 3278911 - Word organized magnetic memory selection and driving system

US Patent 3295114 - Shift register storage and driving system

US Patent 3295115 - Thin magnetic film memory system

US Patent 3299413 - Magnetic wire spiral shift register

US Patent 3334343 - Analogue memory system

US Patent 3351922 - Collapsing domain magnetic memory

US Patent 3366936 - Magnetic shift register with static readout

US Patent 3387290 - Multiphase shift register memory

US Patent 3394358 - Random access wire memory

US Patent 3404384 - Wire memory storage system

US Patent 3404375 - Combination random access and mass store memory


佑onsulting engineer, (own laboratory) New Smyrna Beach, Fl 1964...

US Patent 3390383 - Cylindrical thin film magnetic core memory

US Patent 3432823 - Memory with cores threaded by single conductors

US Patent 3447144 - Magnetically settable magnetic resgister; patent assigned to US Atomic Energy Commission

US Patent 3465306 - Oriented magnetic memory cores

US Patent 3504341 - Magnetic shift register comparitor; patent assigned to US Atomic Energy Commission

US Patent 3551976 - Wire finishing machine

US Patent 3654627 - Plated wire memory



Fragment of undated newspaper article

Newspaper article from 1981

Obituary