Alexander M. Nicholson

This article is about the inventor of the crystal oscillator. For the Canadian politician, see Alexander Malcolm Nicholson.

Alexander M. Nicholson was an American scientist, most notable for inventing the first crystal oscillator, using a piece of Rochelle salt in 1917 while working at Bell Telephone Laboratories. He then filed a patent the next year.^[1] His priority was later disputed by Walter Guyton Cady who invented the first quartz crystal oscillator in 1921.^[2]

References

1. Nicholson, Alexander M. Generating and transmitting electric currents U.S. patent 2,212,845, filed April 10, 1918, granted August 27, 1940
2. Hackman, Christine; Sullivan, Donald B. (26 August 1994). "Resource Letter: TFM-1: Time and frequency measurement" (PDF). Time and Frequency Division. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80303: 1–2. Retrieved 5 January 2016.