From that I searched google and ran across my own post which gives the name of the inventor:
And most recently I saw the premire of "First Sound Of Movies" - Historical Documentary: Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the advent of the first successful motion pictures with sound. Premiering on Broadway as “Phonofilms” on April 12, 1923, this featurette,“The First Sound of Movies” portrays how inventor Lee DeForest fought and finally prevailed against the movie moguls who declared that “The public does not want pictures to talk!” While the series was titled "Phonofilm" they employed the first optical soundtrack directly on the film print. Hollywood's ballyhoo over Steamboat Willie and The Jazz Singer is a lot of hooey.I do agree with the mogul who asked "who wants to hear actors talk???"
People and Discoveries: Lee de Forest
I take issue with some of the "facts" in this article but it contains some key elements of his life and invention.
DeForest has determined the minimal frames per second that gave acceptable audio was 20 FPS. I think that his reading head for the optical signal after the image flickered. This requires synching the soundtrack something like 4 frames ahead of the image (the sound and picture would be read by 2 different components in the camera at the same time).
When Fox, WB and others ripped him off, they used 24 FPS and had their soundtrack read ahead of the image (meaning a synched soundtrack would lag physically behind the corresponding image).
When the case went to court, he was forced to use the studios' projector.
The result was that the film played 4FPS too fast (making the voices higher pitched). It also read the optical soundtrack ahead of the corresponding image (because his reader was located after the shutter).
Since the sound was "funny" and out of synch, he lost his case. The judge ruled that he had not developed a functional system.
This documentary shows a number of surviving films.
The academy gave him an Oscar in the 1950s. It's a shame that they have already forgotten film history.