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Excerpt: History of Electronic Invention

For those interested in the history of invention, I have permission to share an excerpt from the new book, "Much Ado About *Almost* Nothing," a history of electricity by microchip designer Hans Camenzind.

Camenzind moves like a charged particle through the history of electronic invention, sketching dozens of inventors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professors and others.

All the luminaries are here -- Franklin, Faraday, Morse, Bell, Tesla, Edison, Marconi -- but Camenzind shines most when profiling lesser lights who made big contributions.

The excerpt I'm distributing is about one such character: Lee de Forest. Was he the "Father of Radio," as he proclaimed, or a fraud? He helped develop the vacuum tube and rode it to three fortunes before settling down with a Hollywood starlet to a life of relative obscurity.

The excerpt is available at the URL below, along with more information about author Hans Camenzind and his new book, "Much Ado About *Almost* Nothing."

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STEVE O'KEEFE for AuthorViews

Reply to
Steve O'Keefe
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Thank you Steve, what a great story that of Lee de Forest... so typical of those long gone days of continuous trips to the patent office and robber baron financing. Bottom line, I believe a fellow by the name of Armstrong actually made the vacuum tube work in the world of radio. Que no?

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

If you liked that excerpt, look at Empire of the Air and The Continuous Wave. I do not remember the names of the authors.

The people at Perham Foundation have a more favorable vie of de Forest.

My own opinion of de Forest is rather. This shows up in regard to the controversy between de Forest and Edwin Armstrong. Armstrong understood his circuitry. Most of the time, de Forest had no clue. His theory behind the audion seems crazy. It amazes me that de Forest was able to obtain a doctorate.

Bill

-- Support the troops. Impeach Bush. Oh, I forgot about Cheney.

Reply to
Salmon Egg

Meucci invented the telephone, and Bell stole it.

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Reply to
Spurious Response

Gee, I wonder why the whole piece does everything by assertion without presenting a single piece of evidence? Could it be the majority of the story is a fabrication made around some tiny kernels of fact? I'm much more inclined to believe that Meduci's device was essentially a tin-can-telephone, only using copper wire instead of string, and he should NOT get any credit for inventing anything since many other folks were simultaneously working on the same telephone "idea" And that Bell was the one who actually figured out how do, AND DID, one that actually worked.

Reply to
James White

You're an idiot. Meucci's achievements of the time are quite well documented, idiot.

Could it be that you are so full of shit that your eyes are brown, and there is a foul stench emanating from your ears?

Those are tiny kernels of shit rolling out of your ears. We call them dingleberries. The bacteria in your dingleberries have more brains than you do.

Reply to
Spurious Response

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