The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast April 18, 1990

     One of the outstanding inventions that is commonly used today in almost all electronic equipment is dip-soldered printed wiring, commonly called printed circuits.  It is used in all home television sets, VCRs, stereos, radios, personal computers and just about any place electronics is used - military aviation, telephone and commercial industries to name a few more.
     October, 1949, radio amateur and engineer Stan Danko, W2SGG, of Sea Girt, New Jersey, and engineer Moe Abramson conceived of a radically new wiring method.  It used pre-printed flat copper wiring on a plastic sheet with punched holes for accepting electronic parts and with all of the many solder connections made at once in a quick dip process that only took a few seconds to complete.  This system replaced the manual placement and hand wiring of individual wires on electronic production lines and opened the way to automatic machine assembly methods of manufacturing.  Almost without exception, all electronic equipment made today uses this Signal Corp automatic assembly process.  This is especially so with home consumer electronics like television sets, stereos, VCRs and computers.
     After the patented process was announced to the public, hundreds of industry engineers came to get more details and see demonstrations of the printed circuit auto assembly process then being applied to army electronics under development at Fort Monmouth.  Two other radio amateurs, Sam Lanzalotti, W2DVX, and Harry French, W2KQJ, both engineers at Fort Monmouth, were instrumental in refining the techniques, material and process itself.  This resulted in substantial size and cost reductions in hundreds of army applications.
     The consumer electronics manufacturers quickly recognized the advantages too and used the printed circuits in all new electronics.  Soon the basic printed circuit materials business became an industry in itself.
     The importance of this invention in making major cost, size and weight savings while also improving the reliability of electronic equipment was made public in a formal ceremony held in the Pentagon when the Secretary of the Army presented the inventors with the top $10,000 award.  Stan Danko and Moe Abramson also received special Congressional acknowledgements.  Then engineer and radio amateur Stan Danko, W2SGG, was honored by the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers with a Fellowship for his pioneering work in printed circuits and micro-electronics that has such an overall benefit in the broad application of electronics that we all use and enjoy today.

April 18, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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