William Dubilier, Radio Pioneer, Dies
October 1969 Radio-Electronics

October 1969 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Cornell-Dubilier Electric Corporation has been manufacturing capacitors for more than a century - 109 years as of this writing to be more precise. That is utterly amazing, especially since they still use the name of the company founder, William Dubilier. In 1933, they merged with Cornell Radio to form Cornell Dubilier Electronics (CDE). If you have been in the electronics field for a while, you no doubt have heard of their capacitors. In fact, William Dubilier was the inventor of mica-based capacitors. According to this obituary in a 1969 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine (he died on July 25, 1969), Mr. Dubilier held 600 patents. I found a newspaper obit that claims Dublilier was offered, but did not accept, a knighthood and pension for life by the British as a reward for inventing a submarine detection device used in World War I by the French and British governments.

William Dublier, Radio Pioneer, Dies

William Dubilier, a pioneer in electronics and radio and holder of 600 patents, died in West Palm Beach, Florida, July 25, 1969. He was 81.

Founder of the Cornell-Dubilier Electric Corporation, Mr. Dubilier invented the mica capacitor, an electronic flash tube, several radio broadcast systems, and such diverse items as nylon window screens to one of his last developments, in 1966, a sinus-congestion mask.

Obituary from the Sunday, July 27, 1969 edition of the San Antonio Express and News newspaper:

Inventor Dies at 81

Palm Beach, Fla. (AP) - Inventor William Dubilier, who developed several systems of wireless telephony and telegraphy and held over 300 U.S. patents, died Friday on his 81st birthday.

Two rooms at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are devoted to his models and equipments.

Dubilier invented the mica condenser universally used in broadcasting stations and for high frequency equipment and a submarine detection device used in World War I by the French and British governments. For it Dublilier was offered, but did not accept, a knighthood and pension for life by the British.

In 1914-15, he supplied the U.S. government the first wireless communications system for airplanes. In 1910 he pioneered in the adaption of X-ray equipment for dental surgery.

Posted November 16, 2018