Richard H. Ranger

Biography

Richard Howland Ranger was born on June 13th, 1889 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to John Hilliard and Emily Anthen Gillet Ranger. He graduated from MIT in 1911, and enlisted in the Army during World War I, and earned the rank of Captain serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

In 1924 at RCA, Ranger developed radiophoto and facsimile devices, which transmitted photographs of President Coolidge's inauguration from New York to London.

In 1930, Ranger left RCA and founded Rangertone, and invented an electronic organ, sold as the Rangertone Organ, and developed electronic chimes used by NBC in 1933.

During World War II, Ranger rejoined the Army in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and worked on technical intelligence missions in Europe. During this time he made developments in radar and airborne radio relay, and rose to the rank of Colonel.

After the war, Ranger worked on magnetic recording technology, based off the German Magnetophon. In 1956, he was the recipient of an Oscar award for the invention of a method of synchronizing sound recorded on magnetic tape to the motion picture camera, and was the 1957 recipient of the recipient of the Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

Ranger was a charter member of the Audio Engineering Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers, and a member of the Royal Society, London. He passed away on January 10th, 1962.