Previous Page: "The rich poor man of inventors," and in my view, he was the victim of gross injustice. Lee De Forest found an allusion to construct the long sought-after detector of electromagnetic radiation in John A. Fleming's invention: of his so-called electronic valve. The most serious limitation of the Fleming valve was that it was relatively insensitive to changes in the concentration of occurrence in electromagnetic radiation. Furthermore, the Fleming valve could only act as a rectifier but could not create amplification. Lee De Forests effortlessly developed the Fleming's invention. Lee De Forest uncomplicatedly inserted a third electrode between the cathode and the anode to create the Audion amplifier: Lee De Forest laid claims to more than 300 patents. The Audion tube or triode provided the amplifying and switching functions that would later be performed by the transistor and the numerous electronic circuits, which eventually became a rather stunning commercial success. Lee De Forest was plagued with failure as well, but that was because no one sought after his developments. In addition, he was frequently involved in patent lawsuits, without a doubt I can imagine that he spent quite small a fortune on his legal demeanours. |
