Posted on 08/19/2006 8:14:35 AM PDT by Borges
Lee De Forest, (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor with over 300 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use of electronics.
He was involved in several patent lawsuits (and he spent a fortune from his inventions on the legal bills). He had four marriages and several failed companies, he was defrauded by business partners, and he was once indicted for mail fraud, but was later acquitted.
I walk, and it keeps me healthy.
How interesting that he was working on nuclear fusion later in life.
Andre-Marie Ampere
Otis Boykin
Rudolf Diesel
Thomas Edison
Michael Faraday
Benjamin Franklin
Luigi Galvani
William Gilbert
Otto von Guericke
Joseph Henry
Charles Franklin Kettering
Lewis Latimer
James Clerk Maxwell
Isaac Newton
Hans Christian Oersted
Georg Ohm
Lester Pelton
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
William Stanley, Jr.
Nikola Tesla
Alessandro Volta
George Westinghouse
Granville Woods
DeForest was his own worst enemy. He sold the rights to his grid patent to AT&T (for telephone repeater use) for the paltry sum of $50K (considering it's ultimate commercial value).
Philo jolt!
The lifestyle (sans TV) you have chosen is good for young children. The TV is often used as a baby sitter by too many parents, however it makes a wonderful sitter for some of us old farts.
i'm talking about the TV Screen / CRT Monitor you are reading THESE words on... and the technology used in getting them to your TV Screen / CRT Monitor is same-same BROADCAST TV except by wire instead of radio. p.s. i have a TV... but not hooked to anything except my VHS/DVD since 1999.
Neat.
There is an excellent book called "Tube" that covers the early history of television technology. I highly recommend it.
I've known since I was a teenager about Philo Farnsworth. My memory is hazy on the subject, but didn't he have something to do with Philip's?
'His sole appearance on national television was as a mystery guest on the CBS game show "I've Got a Secret" in 1957. He fielded questions from the celebrity panelists as they tried in vain to guess his secret ("I invented electronic television"). For stumping them, Farnsworth took home $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes.
In 1971, Farnsworth died at age 64.'
Cigarettes, another genius deceived by big tobacco dies young.
> I do not have a TV, and haven't had one for decades: I used to have a TV once [for about 2 months], saw the kind of crap which was shown - and immediately got rid of that TV by donating it. May Farnsworth's name remain forgotten, or be held in abhorrence and detestation <
And may we presume that your computer lacks a monitor?
Thanks for the image.
I kinda thought that it occured to him sort of like at random while he was doing the boring and mundane task of plowing the field. Now I can see he how he got his idea...
> Famous Inventors Involved in the History of Electricity and Electronics <
You obviously don't give any significant credit to Messrs.
Hertz, Marconi, Fessenden and Armstrong, not to mention Yagi-San.
Shame, shame!
I stand corrected.
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