“I discovered an Invisible Empire of the Air, intangible, yet solid as granite.”
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Lee de Forest
Lee de Forest was an American inventor, electrical engineer, and early pioneer in electronics of fundamental importance. He invented the first practical electronic amplifier, the three-element "Audion" triode vacuum tube in 1908. This helped start the Electronic Age, and enabled the development of the electronic oscillator. These made radio broadcasting and long-distance telephone lines possible,…
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science · American inventor (1873–1961) · physicist · inventor · film director · electrical engineer · film producer · radio technician · engineer · technician · also Lee de Forest, Forest
Born 26 August 1873 · Died 30 June 1961 · Q354863
62 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 2 entries
“first radio-telephone station devoted solely”
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2019· 1 entry
Snopes rated the claim “Lee de Forest, the "father of radio," proclaimed that a man-made moon voyage will never occur.” True.
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2009· 1 entry
Released ep “Cycle of Life”.
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2003· 1 entry
By History San José and put on display as the Perham Collection of Early Electronics
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1991· 1 entry
The college closed the museum, breaking its contract
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1977· 1 entry
Awarded National Inventors Hall of Fame (1977).
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1973· 1 entry
Opened the Foothills Electronics Museum at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California
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1961· 2 entries
Died 1961-06-30.
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Aged 87, and was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, California
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1960· 2 entries
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (1960).
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In recognition of "his pioneering inventions which brought sound to the motion picture"
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1958· 1 entry
After which he remained mostly bedridden
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1956· 1 entry
“exceedingly arrogant, brow beating, even brutal”
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1952· 2 entries
“I came, I saw, I invented—it's that simple—no need to sit and think—it's all in your imagination.”
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Wrote to the newly elected Vice President Richard Nixon, urging him to "prosecute with renewed vigor your valiant fight to put out Communism from every branch of our government"
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1950· 1 entry
His autobiography, Father of Radio, was published, although it sold poorly
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1949· 1 entry
"sent letters to all members of Congress urging them to vote against socialized medicine, federally subsidized housing, and an excess profits tax"
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1946· 1 entry
Won Edison Medal (1946).
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1940· 1 entry
Sent an open letter to the National Association of Broadcasters in which he demanded: "What have you done with my child, the radio broadcast
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1934· 1 entry
Established a small shop to produce diathermy machines, and, in a 1942 interview, still hoped "to make at least one more great invention"
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1932· 1 entry
In the midst of the Great Depression, he voted for Franklin Roosevelt, but later came to resent him, calling Roosevelt America's "first Fascist president"
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1931· 1 entry
That this modification could not be patented)
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1929· 1 entry
Awarded John Scott Award (1929).
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1927· 1 entry
And 1928, Hollywood expanded its use of sound-on-film systems, including Fox Movietone and RCA Photophone
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1924· 3 entries
Which was one of the films shown by de Forest and claimed by him to be the product of his inventions
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That court concluded that the evidence, beginning with the 1912 notebook entry, was sufficient to establish de Forest's priority
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“De Forest Phonofilm Co. Inc. on White House grounds”
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1923· 3 entries
Won Elliott Cresson Medal (1923).
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De Forest premiered 18 Phonofilm short films at the independent Rivoli Theater in New York City
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Demonstrated Phonofilm to the press; this was followed on April 12, 1923, by a private demonstration to electrical engineers at the Engineering Society Building's auditorium at 33 West 39th Street in New York City
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1922· 1 entry
Won IEEE Medal of Honor (1922).
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1921· 2 entries
The court ruled that the lack of awareness and understanding on de Forest's part, in addition to the fact that he had made no immediate advances beyond his initial observation, made implausible his attempt to prevail as
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De Forest ended most of his radio research to concentrate on developing an optical sound-on-film process called Phonofilm
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1920· 1 entry
Were living with their infant daughter, Deena (born c
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1919· 2 entries
And 2XG soon renewed operation, with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company now supplying the phonograph records
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Filed the first patent for the new system, which improved upon earlier work by Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt and the German partnership Tri-Ergon
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1917· 3 entries
All civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, so 2XG was silenced for the duration of the war
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"in recognition of his work and publications dealing with the action of the oscillating and nonoscillating audion", but the organization's board refused to let him, stating that it "strongly affirms the original award"
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Beginning in 1915, de Forest filed a series of patent applications that largely copied Armstrong's claims, in the hopes of having the priority of the competing applications upheld by an interference hearing at the patent
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1916· 1 entry
As part of an arrangement with the Columbia Graphophone Company to promote its recordings, which included "announcing the title and 'Columbia Gramophone [sic] Company' with each playing"
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1915· 1 entry
AT&T used the innovation to conduct the first transcontinental telephone calls, in conjunction with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco
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1913· 1 entry
Armstrong prepared papers and gave demonstrations that comprehensively documented how to employ three-element vacuum tubes in circuits that amplified signals to stronger levels than previously thought possible, and that
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1912· 3 entries
Across the feedback principle, which was then used in the spring of 1913 to operate a low-powered transmitter for heterodyne reception of Federal Telegraph arc transmissions
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Of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE)
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Investigation of vacuum-tube capabilities increased, simultaneously by numerous inventors in multiple countries, who identified additional important uses for the device
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1910· 2 entries
And the next day's test included Italian tenor Enrico Caruso
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Now using the superior capabilities of vacuum-tube equipment
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1907· 2 entries
De Forest made the first ship-to-shore transmissions by radiotelephone—race reports for the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association Regatta held on Lake Erie—which were sent from the steam yacht Thelma to his assistant,
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And in 1908, on de Forest's Paris honeymoon, musical selections were broadcast from the Eiffel Tower as a part of demonstrations of the arc transmitter
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1906· 3 entries
And by February was making experimental transmissions, including music produced by Thaddeus Cahill's telharmonium, that were heard throughout the city
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In exchange for $1000 (half of which was claimed by an attorney) and the rights to some early Audion detector patents, de Forest turned in his stock and resigned from the company that bore his name
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De Forest filed a patent for the diode vacuum tube detector, that was granted U
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1905· 1 entry
And 1906, he developed various configurations of glass-tube devices, which he gave the general name of "Audions"
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1903· 1 entry
Reginald Fessenden demonstrated an electrolytic detector, and de Forest developed a variation, which he called the "spade detector", claiming it did not infringe on Fessenden's patents
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1899· 1 entry
With a dissertation on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", supervised by theoretical physicist Willard Gibbs
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1898· 1 entry
De Forest enrolled in the Connecticut Volunteer Militia Battery as a bugler, but the war ended, and he was mustered out without ever leaving the state
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1896· 1 entry
Was already making impressive progress in both Europe and the United States
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1893· 1 entry
Enrolled in a three-year course of studies at Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, on a $300 per year scholarship that had been established for relatives of David de Forest
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1879· 1 entry
The elder de Forest became president of the American Missionary Association's Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, a school "open to all of either sex, without regard to sect, race, or color", and which educated prim
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1873· 2 entries
Born 1873-08-26.
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In Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of Anna Margaret (née Robbins) and Henry Swift DeForest
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