Oliver Dalton
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 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.
Documents Authored by Oliver Dalton
| Document | Page | Class | Title | Author(s) | Year | Refers to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology Report October 1979.pdf | 16 | Article | Patent Received: 4,109,182 Simultaneous Delayed Sweep Display | Oliver Dalton | 1979 | Patent US 4109182A • 7B80 • 7B85 • 7B10 • 7B15 |
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 |