John Austin Victoreen

Victoreen was born to Ernest and Anne (Austin) Victoreen in 1902. He married Francis S. Shima, and they had two children: Jacqueline Ann (later Weir) and Robert Roy. Francis died in 1968 and he was remarried to Lizzie Louise (Bush) Sturges Feb 11, 1970.

Victoreen moved to Colorado Springs in 1950 and was on the staff as a consulting physicist at the Medical Center there. His interest in audio power amplification and frequency response led him into the field of otology and otometry. He moved from Colorado Springs to Maitland, FL in 1962

His interest soon turned to radiation measurement. In 1928 he founded the Victoreen Instrument Company in Cleveland Heights, OH and began to manufacture an x-ray dosimeter invented by Hugo Fricke and Otto Glasser. The first commercial model was the Condenser-R meter, which accurately measured the intensity and total dosage of X-ray exposure, and he gained international fame for this. He also developed other radiation measurement devices and his company provided 95% of the instrumentation for the Bikini atomic tests after World War II. His company was considered to be the "first nuclear company". During World War II, Victoreen was contracted by the Manhattan Project to develop portable radiation devices as part of the highly secret Operation Peppermint project leading up to D-Day.

Victoreen began his career in Cleveland, Ohio as a radio and radio parts manufacturer in the early 1920s ( QSL card 8ACH ) . At age 23 he had already received the first of many patents, this one for a high frequency tuning device that could be used in systems with radio frequency amplifiers of constant frequency. He had started a radio parts business and became interested in designing and building high quality radio receivers, some of which still exist today. His Heterodyne was considered by some to be the "Rolls-Royce" of radios.

John Austin Victoreen (July 4, 1902 – May 5, 1986) was a self-taught physicist, engineer, inventor and otologist. He founded the Victoreen Instrument Company and was the author of two books, various technical papers on radiation and sound waves, and holder of over 30 patents.