Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest, (August 26, 1873 ? June 30, 1961) was an American inventor with over 300 patents to his name. 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.

Later years

De Forest sold one of his radio manufacturing firms to RCA in 1931. In 1934, the courts sided with De Forest against Armstrong (although the technical community did not agree with the courts). De Forest won the court battle, but he lost the battle for public opinion. His peers would not take him seriously as an inventor or trust him as a colleague. For De Forest's initially rejected (but later adopted) movie sound method, he was given an Academy Award (Oscar) in 1959/1960 for "his pioneering inventions which brought sound to the motion picture", and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Related Topics:
RCA - 1931 - 1934 - Academy Award - Hollywood Walk of Fame

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

De Forest received the IRE Medal of Honor in 1922, as 'recognition for his invention of the three-electrode amplifier and his other contributions to radio'. In 1946 he received the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) 'For the profound technical and social consequences of the grid-controlled vacuum tube which he had introduced'.

Related Topics:
IRE - Medal of Honor - 1922 - Edison Medal - AIEE

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He died in Hollywood in 1961 and was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Related Topics:
1961 - San Fernando Mission Cemetery - Los Angeles, California

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~