Alexander M. Nicholson

{{about|the inventor of the crystal oscillator|the Canadian politician|Alexander Malcolm Nicholson}}

Alexander M. Nicholson was an American scientist, most notable for inventing the first crystal oscillator, using a piece of Rochelle salt in 1917 while working at Bell Telephone Laboratories. He then filed a patent the next year.Nicholson, Alexander M. Generating and transmitting electric currents {{US patent|2212845}}, filed April 10, 1918, granted August 27, 1940 His priority was later disputed by Walter Guyton Cady who invented the first quartz crystal oscillator in 1921.{{cite journal |last=Hackman |first=Christine |last2=Sullivan |first2=Donald B. |date=26 August 1994 |title=Resource Letter: TFM-1: Time and frequency measurement |url=http://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/616.pdf |journal=Time and Frequency Division |publisher=National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80303 |pages=1–2 |access-date=5 January 2016}}