Otis Frank Boykin
Electronics inventor of precision wire resistors
At a glance
- Inventor
- Otis Frank Boykin
- Life
- 1920–1982
- Birthplace
- Dallas, Texas
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1950–2000
- Fields
- Technology & Computing, Science & Engineering
- Evidence
- Documented
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
Boykin patented resistors that held their value under heat, shock and pressure change, and could be made cheaply — components that went into computers, radios, television sets and guided-missile electronics.
Historical context
Electronics of the period were only as stable as their most temperature-sensitive component; resistor drift was a chronic reliability problem.
Obstacles
Unable to afford graduate study after his funding ran out, he worked out of small laboratories and consultancies rather than a corporate research division.
The legacy
His resistor designs were widely licensed, and his components are frequently cited in connection with control circuitry in early cardiac pacemakers.
The evidence
Granted patents of Otis F. Boykin, electrical resistance element series
Primary recordOtis Boykin inventor record
Institutional record
Documentation strength
- 2
- Sources
- 1
- Primary
- 2
- Publishers
Calculated from the sources actually attached to this record — the closer a source sits to the original document, the more it counts. It is never asserted by hand.