# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/harold-stephen-black
# Generated: 2026-08-14T01:57:35.378Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/harold-stephen-black"
name: "Harold Stephen Black"
slug: "harold-stephen-black"
description: "Harold Stephen Black was an American electrical engineer, who revolutionized the field of applied electronics by inventing the negative feedback amplifier in 1927. To some, his invention is considered the most important breakthrough of the twentieth century in the field of electronics, since it has a wide area of application. This is because all electronic devices are inherently nonlinear, but they can be made substantially linear with the application of negative feedback. Negative feedback works by sacrificing gain for higher linearity. By sacrificing gain, it also has an additional effect of increasing the bandwidth of the amplifier. However, a negative feedback amplifier can be unstable such that it may oscillate. Once the stability problem is solved, the negative feedback amplifier is extremely useful in the field of electronics. Black published a famous paper, Stabilized feedback amplifiers, in 1934."
tagline: "American electrical engineer (1898–1983)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Harold_Stephen_Black.gif"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1898-04-14"
deathDate: "1983-12-11"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           45.35
  momentum:             0
  historical:           13.74971333333333
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
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    title: "哈罗德·史蒂芬·布莱克"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "هارولد ستيفن بلاك"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AF_%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%86_%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%83"
    title: "هارولد ستيفن بلاك"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A8%D9%84%DA%A9"
    title: "هارولد استیون بلک"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%AE%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%8C_%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9F%E0%B8%99_%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%A5%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%81"
    title: "แฮโรลด์ สตีเฟน แบล็ก"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black"
    title: "Harold Stephen Black"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1585955"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump