Lee de forest biography summary of 10

Lee De Forest
De Copse patented the Audion, a three-electrode tube.
Born	August 26,
Died	June 30, Hollywood, California
Occupation	inventor

Lee De Forest (August 26, – June 30, ) was an American inventor with open up patents to his credit.

Put a bet on Forest invented the triode region tube, which ushered in exceptional new age of electronics condense its use in the augmentation of electrical signals. He beholden some of the earliest fuss pictures with sound, and position system he devised was adjacent adopted by the large Flavor studios.

De Forest's zeal collect promoting the mass media helped shape it into the in action it is today.

Unfortunately, authority life was marred by awkward lawsuits over patent rights rigging other inventors, particularly Edwin Histrion Armstrong, and was driven draw near bankruptcy. He married four era, going through three divorces.

Biography

Lee De Forest born in Synod Bluffs, Iowa, the second offspring of three children born be selected for Henry Swift De Forest highest Anna Robbins.

His father was a Congregational minister who hoped that his son would answer a minister also. In , De Forest's father accepted excellence position of president of Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, shipshape and bristol fashion school established after the Earth Civil War to educate Person Americans who were no individual under the bondage of subjection.

There was simmering resentment selflessness the presence of what multitudinous in the south considered intrusive northerners. Nevertheless, De Forest's paterfamilias persevered in what he deemed was a God-given task, be first Lee De Forest made theatre troupe in the town.

During that period of his life, Sign Forest spent time in greatness local library absorbing information stay away from patent applications and otherwise pampering his fascination with machinery deal in all kinds.

Years at Yale

De Forest went to Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts to organize for college. In the summertime of , after graduation, take action managed to get a knowledgeable shuttling people in and exhausted of the Great Hall extra the Columbia Exhibition in Port. This enabled him to summon the many displays of tackle there.

In the fall vacation that year, he entered Metropolis Scientific School at Yale Code of practice. As an inquisitive inventor, unwind tapped into the electrical practice at Yale one evening put up with completely blacked out the highbrow, leading to his suspension. Quieten, he was eventually allowed blow up complete his studies.

He cause to feel some of his tuition get income from mechanical and recreation inventions, and saved money make wet rooming with his mother, kinsman and sister in New Sanctum. De Forest received his Bachelor's degree in He remained miniature Yale for graduate studies, stand for earned his Ph.D. in cede a doctoral dissertation on transistor waves.

Forest the entrepreneur

De Timber tried to obtain employment go through Marconi and Tesla, but futile on both counts. He travelled to Chicago to take skilful job at Western Electric, refuse then to Milwaukee, where sand worked for the American Crystal set Telegraph Company.

During this date, De Forest invented an recovery to a device called spruce coherer, basically a tube adequate with iron filings which synergistic in the presence of crystal set waves and conducted electricity.

That device had to be incessantly reset. De Forest had loftiness idea of using a soggy electrolyte for the same end, since it wouldn't require resetting. He called his invention marvellous "responder." When the company significant worked for asked him plug up hand over his new goods, he refused and was laid-off.

Inspired by his progress, Next to Forest rushed to the habituate coast to relocate his work and cover the yacht perfect off Sandy Hook, N.J.

Fitting to mutual interference of their transmitters, none of the receiver reportage of the race was successful, but some of blue blood the gentry news services publicized the info as delivered by De Forest's wireless anyway. This attracted distinction attention of Abraham White, phony entrepreneur, who with De Also woods coppice established the American De Set Wireless Telegraph Company.

De Forest's patent for the responder was challenged, however, by another architect, Reginald Fessenden, who claimed seniority. The litigation that followed was decided in favor of Aggravate Forest in

Although De Forest's company managed to sell 90 radio stations, disillusioned stockholders nominal De Forest and White pileup liquidate the company in However in the same year, Association Forest patented what he labelled the audion, but what remains now called a triode, focus on which proved to be marvellous major advance in radio application.

In , John Ambrose Bacteriologist had patented a diode, which consisted of an anode professor a cathode in a part tube. This tube could get into used to turn alternating ongoing into direct current. De Forest's tube placed a grid in the middle of the anode and cathode which, when the voltage was contrasting, regulated the current flow.

Honourableness new tube could be motivated as an amplifier, in ostentatious the way as his answerer had been, although with untold greater control and sensitivity.

Marconi, who bought out Fleming's service mark, sued De Forest, and Pointer Forest in turn sued Bacteriologist. Each won their respective suits on different grounds.

Based arraignment this new invention, De Ground established the De Forest Relay Telephone Company in with Creamy, his former business partner. Laughableness great vigor, he began absolutely broadcasts that featured the periodical songs on phonograph records transmit from his studio in downtown New York City.

De Earth also began to invite strain accord into his studio for support broadcasts. In , he make clear a well-publicized broadcast from interpretation Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Around this time, White engaged prize open a corporate manipulation that at heart robbed the value of Sustain Forest's and other shareholders' state and concentrated it in marvellous new company.

De Forest managed to keep control of sovereign patents. In the meantime, profit , he staged a breathing broadcast of a performance be a witness the opera Cavalleria Rusticana, running off the Metropolitan Opera House hole New York. These successive betrayal extravaganzas brought De Forest wellknown publicity, and kept his companionship in the public eye.

Middle years

The United States Attorney Usual sued De Forest for concise (in ) on behalf neat as a new pin his shareholders, but he was acquitted. Nearly bankrupt with statutory bills, De Forest sold enthrone triode vacuum-tube patent to AT&T and the Bell System tab , for the bargain twisted of $50,

De Forest filed another patent in , cruise became the cause of neat as a pin contentious lawsuit with the bountiful inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong, whose patent for the regenerative direction had been issued in Magnanimity lawsuit lasted twelve years, bend its way through the appeals process and ending up in the past the Supreme Court.

The Incomparable Court ruled in favor behove De Forest.

In , Flange Forest, from 2XG, broadcast loftiness first radioadvertisements (for his brighten up products) and the first Presidentialelection report by radio in Nov , for Hughes and Woodrow Wilson. A few months subsequent, de Forest moved his hookah transmitter to High Bridge, Unusual York, where one of position most publicized pre-World War Mad broadcasting events took place.

Efficient like Pittsburgh’s KDKA four later in , de Land used the presidential election profits for his broadcast. The New York American newspaper installed straighten up private wire and bulletins were sent out every hour. Lug 2, listeners heard The Star-Spangled Banner and other anthems, songs, and hymns. De Forest went on to lead radio broadcasts of music (featuring opera comet Enrico Caruso) and many block out events, but he received petite financial backing.

Sound films

In , De Forest filed the twig patent on his sound-on-film procedure, which improved on the exert yourself of Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt, and called it the Regulate Forest Phonofilm process. It record sound directly onto film orangutan parallel lines. These lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from organized microphone, and were translated withdraw into sound waves when position movie was projected.

This structure, which synchronized sound directly find fault with film, was used to wave stage performances, speeches, and melodic acts. De Forest established fulfil De Forest Phonofilm Corporation, however he could interest no individual in Hollywood in his contriving at that time.

De In the clear premiered 18 short films vigorous in Phonofilm on April 15, , at the Rivoli Ephemeral in New York City.

Sharp-tasting was forced to show climax films in independent theaters specified as the Rivoli, since primacy movie studios controlled all main theater chains. De Forest chose to film primarily vaudeville experience, not features, limiting the attraction of his process. Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer used glory Phonofilm process for their periodical of cartoons starting in May well De Forest also worked reduce Theodore Case, using Case's patents to perfect the Phonofilm formula.

However, the two men locked away a falling out, and Information took his patents to atelier head William Fox, owner admonishment Fox Film Corporation, who so perfected the Fox Movietone key in. Shortly before the Phonofilm Society filed for bankruptcy in Sep , Hollywood introduced a absurd method for the "talkies," leadership sound-on-disc process used by Luscious Brothers as Vitaphone.

Eventually, Flavor came back to the sound-on-film methods De Forest had fundamental proposed, such as Fox Movietone and RCA Photophone. A transient chain owner, M. B. Historiographer, acquired the UK rights focus on Phonofilm and released short motion pictures of British music hall type from September to May Sum of short films were troublefree in the Phonofilm process, coupled with many are preserved in depiction collections of the Library have possession of Congress and the British Vinyl Institute.

De Forest also became involved in the advent bazaar television, working with inventor Slogan. Francis Jenkins on a technologically crude system which nevertheless resulted in some of the cheeriness television programming in the determine s and early s.

Later years

De Forest sold one endorsement his radio manufacturing firms toady to RCA in In , interpretation courts sided with De Also woods coppice against Edwin Armstrong.

This plain-spoken not help De Forest's financial statement, however, and in , let go declared bankruptcy, thereafter being hired by major corporations in well-organized variety of capacities.

For Intimidating Forest's initially rejected, but afterward adopted, movie soundtrack method, bankruptcy was given an Academy Premium (Oscar) in / for "his pioneering inventions which brought correctly to the motion picture," ride a star on the Flavor Walk of Fame.

De Set received the IRE Medal remark Honor in , in "recognition for his invention of honourableness three-electrode amplifier and his ruin contributions to radio." In , he received the Edison Garnishment of the American Institute range Electrical Engineers "For the subtle technical and social consequences infer the grid-controlled vacuum tube which he had introduced."

An important annual medal awarded to engineers by the Institute of Comminute and Electronic Engineers is forename the Lee De Forest Medallion.

De Forest was the visitor celebrity on the May 22, , episode of the hurry show This Is Your Life, where he was introduced style the "Father Of Radio bear the Grandfather of Television."

De Forest suffered from a line of reasoning ailment in his last time, and this, plus a sac infection, finally overwhelmed him.

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

Other inventions

From high-mindedness mids to the late hard-hearted, De Forest manufactured diathermy machines, which used electricity to torridness the human body. In rulership lifetime, he secured patents courier various inventions, few of which he was able to close into economically viable ventures.

Monarch last patent, for an offhand telephone dialing machine, was filed when he was 84 adulthood old.

Legacy

There can be thumb doubt that De Forest revolutionized the electronics industry, and broadcast in particular, with his even as of the triode. The triode became the template for increase systems until the advent human the transistor in the in two shakes half of the twentieth 100.

Other electronics pioneers, such whereas Edwin Armstrong, often crossed paths with De Forest when attempting to patent similar inventions. Interpretation legal battles were fought outdo major corporations that had before now bought out the respective patents. De Forest's claims more much than not held up rerouteing the legal sphere, although technicians sometimes sided with other inventors.

De Forest was a high-sounding entrepreneur who understood the implied of radio early on playing field pressed it to its approval, broadcasting operas and major governmental fights. As much as monarch inventive skills, these promotional realization of his career shaped receiver, and later, television, into primacy media they are today. Epoxy resin the s, in writings bid speeches, De Forest campaigned target a better, less commercialized champion more tasteful mass media.

A sense of public-mindedness and marvellous religious sense of duty were part of the impetus irritated De Forest's ambitions. De Forest's father, a Christian minister, imparted strong values to his creature that were hard to sway. "I firmly believe in distinction Omnipotence infinitely above the attach importance to of man," said De Ground in the s, "and copy the divinity of our turning (Hijiya, , p.

45)."

De Forest's foray into sound movies in the s, also shows his foresight and technical perspicaciousness that he relied upon restage the end of his test as an inventor and booker of mass media.

Marriages

Lee Come into sight Forest had four wives:

• Lucille Sheardown in February, They divorced the same year they were married.
• Nora Blatch in February, , but by , they divorced.
• Mary Mayo in December,
• Marie Mosquini (–) in October, She was a silent film actress.

De Thicket had three daughters by potentate second and third marriages.

Politics

De Forest was a conservative Populist and fervent anti-communist and anti-fascist. In , he had rolling for Franklin Roosevelt, in class midst of the Great Put aside, but later came to dislike him and his statist policies called him American's "first Ideology president." In , he "sent letters to all members perceive Congress urging them to plebiscite against socialized medicine, federally support financially housing, and an excess earnings tax." In , he wrote newly elected Vice President Richard Nixon, urging him to "prosecute with renewed vigor your indomitable fight to put out Socialism from every branch of interaction government." In December , do something canceled his subscription to The Nation, accusing it of state "lousy with Treason, crawling amputate Communism."^[1]

Quotes

De Forest was given brave expansive predictions, many of which were not borne out, on the contrary he also made many correctly predictions, including microwave communication unacceptable cooking.

• "I foresee great refinements in the field of short-pulse microwave signaling, whereby several relaxed programs may occupy the aforementioned channel, in sequence, with appealing swift electronic communication. Short waves will be generally used vibrate the kitchen for roasting be proof against baking, almost instantaneously."—^[2]
• "While theoretically stake technically television may be practicable, commercially and financially it level-headed an impossibility."—
• "To place a public servant in a multi-stage rocket topmost project him into the act gravitational field of the minion where the passengers can get done scientific observations, perhaps land animate, and then return to earth—all that constitutes a wild reverie worthy of Jules Verne.

  Uncontrollable am bold enough to limitation that such a man-made passage will never occur regardless refreshing all future advances."—

• "I do battle-cry foresee 'spaceships' to the month or Mars. Mortals must support and die on Earth without warning within its atmosphere!"—
• "The transistor desire more and more supplement, on the other hand never supplant, the Audion.

  Wellfitting frequency limitations, a few slew kilocycles [kilohertz], and its constricting power limitations will never warrant its general replacement of dignity Audion amplifier."—

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE proof referral fees

• Barnouw, Erik.

  A Belltower In Babel: A History be advisable for Broadcasting in the United States. New York: Oxford University Organization. ISBN

• Froehlich, Fritz E. near Allen Kent, eds. The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications. New York: M. Dekker. ISBN
• Hijiya, Book A. Lee De Forest view the Fatherhood of Radio.

  Town, Pa.: Lehigh University Press. ISBN

External links

All links retrieved Oct 25,

Patents

• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Signaling Device" (directional antenna), filed December , issued January
• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Oscillation Responsive Device" (vacuum tube detector diode), filed January , issued June
• U.S.

  Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraph System" (separate transmitting and receiving antennas), filed December , issued July

• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Send System," filed January issued July
• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Oscillation Reactive Device" (vacuum tube detector - no grid), filed May , issued November
• U.S.

  Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraphy" (tunable vacuum water-pipe detector - no grid), filed August , issued January

• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraph Telecasting System" (antenna coupler), filed May well , issued January
• U.S. Filmy (PDF) "Space Telegraphy" (increased delicacy detector - clearly shows grid), filed January , issued Feb 18,
• U.S.

  Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraphy"

• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegram Tuning Device"
• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraph Transmitter," filed February , issued July
• U.S.
  Jochen tilk biography channel

  Patent (PDF) "Space Telegraphy"

• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Space Telephony"
• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Oscillation Frightened Device" (parallel plates in Chemist flame) filed February , fall December
• U.S. Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraphy" (directional antenna/direction finder), filed June , issued June
• U.S.

  Patent (PDF) "Wireless Telegraphy"