Oliver Dalton

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Oliver Dalton (b. Jan 12, 1927 – d. June 4, 2003) was the manager of the 647 and 7000 series development. He also managed the 453, 454 and 485 development programs, and was deeply involved in the development of the 321.

Oliver Dalton

Oliver retired from Tektronix on June 30, 1983, after 24.5 years of service.

Regarding Oliver Dalton's role at Tektronix, Linley Gumm said,

Oliver was the one that would, at the beginning of a project, hold a meeting with the designers of the deflection amplifiers and the CRT designers to reach the volts per division V and H compromise that would define the entire project.

I was on hand once when Oliver's reputation across the company was demonstrated. Chasing a problem, one of Oliver's staff had discovered a serious problem with the now shipping design. Oliver picked up the phone and called the plant manager and suggested that it would be a good idea to halt shipments until the problem was resolved. The word went out across the company that "Oliver said to shut the line down", and it was. Further, virtually the whole company was suddenly at his disposal to solve said problem. His reputation was such that what Oliver said pretty much directed the situation upward and downward through the organization.

According to Phil Crosby's account of the 556 development, Dalton was involved in the 544/546/547 development and had been the person who invented the 547's "Sweep Switching" feature.

Products by Oliver Dalton

Manufacturer Model Description Designers Introduced
Tektronix 321 Portable single channel scope Oz Svehaug Oliver Dalton Hiro Moriyasu 1960
Tektronix 647 50 MHz scope Oz Svehaug Oliver Dalton Jim Knapton 1963
Tektronix 321A Portable single channel scope Oz Svehaug Oliver Dalton Hiro Moriyasu 1964
Tektronix 453 50 MHz portable dual-trace scope Oliver Dalton Gene Andrews 1965
Tektronix 454 150 MHz portable dual-trace scope Oliver Dalton 1967
Tektronix 454A 150 MHz portable dual-trace scope Oliver Dalton 1971

Components by Oliver Dalton

Patents by Oliver Dalton

Page Office Number Title Inventors Company Filing date Grant date
Patent US 3215948A US 3215948A Triggering circuit for automatically changing the mode of operation of a signal generator Oliver Dalton Tektronix Inc 1962-03-23 1965-11-02
Patent US 3253225A US 3253225A Hybrid amplifier circuit Oliver Dalton Bob Rullman Tektronix Inc 1962-04-26 1966-05-24
Patent US 3138764A US 3138764A Ramp generator employing comparator circuit for maintaining constant starting voltages for different timing resistors Oliver Dalton Bob Rullman Tektronix Inc 1962-07-09 1964-06-23
Patent US 3255419A US 3255419A Wide band amplifier circuit having current amplifier input stage and operational amplifier output stage Jim Knapton Oliver Dalton Tektronix Inc 1963-06-18 1966-06-07
Patent US 3668505A US 3668505A High voltage regulation circuit Oliver Dalton Vaughn Weidel Tektronix Inc 1970-07-20 1972-06-06
Patent US 4109182A US 4109182A Delayed sweep system for an oscilloscope Oliver Dalton Tektronix Inc 1976-03-10 1978-08-22

Photos