History of Radio: How Lee De Forest, a Con Artist, Created Radio
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Date: 2022-12-27
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Comments and reviews: 20
scharkalvin
Deforest spent many years attempting to invent a radio detector that wouldn't infringe on patents held by others. All of his previous detectors would not pass the patent test as being uniquely original. He noticed that when he keyed a spark transmitter in his lab, the flame of a bunsen burner would seem to vibrate in time to the morse code being sent. He believed that the flame could detect the radio signal. He then inserted two wires into the flame and connected them to his radio receiving set. He tried different combos of metals, and flame settings, and it seemed that the ionized gas within the fire was detecting the radio signal. He realized that the device would be dangerous to use with the open flame, so he made up a light bulb which contained some of the gas used in the bunsen burner and the two wires. He also tried using the filament as one of the wires. His detector worked, but it was probably using the thermionic emission principle rather than his ionized gas theory, and thus was in violation of Flemings patent by using the 'Edison Effect'. He tried re-arranging the elements within the bulb, and also filled the bulb with different gases, along with a vacuum. One of these combinations showed promise, that of the three element triode. So by blind luck, and lots of experiments (a method also used by Edison, DeForest stumbled upon the triode tube. He never really understood how it worked, so most vacuum tube circuits were later perfected by Armstrong, and other engineers working at RCA.
His business tactics were bordering on selling snake oil, but in many ways Edison was no better.
Edison also didn't truly invent many of his patented discoveries, but he did vastly improve upon the work of others. The electric light is a good example of that, as there were other examples of incandescent electric lights already in existence when Edison started his experiments. However none of these combined the three important elements that made Edison's bulb unique, a high voltage, low current filament, a slender heated element instead of a large one, and operation in a vacuum instead of open in air.
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Deforest spent many years attempting to invent a radio detector that wouldn't infringe on patents held by others. All of his previous detectors would not pass the patent test as being uniquely original. He noticed that when he keyed a spark transmitter in his lab, the flame of a bunsen burner would seem to vibrate in time to the morse code being sent. He believed that the flame could detect the radio signal. He then inserted two wires into the flame and connected them to his radio receiving set. He tried different combos of metals, and flame settings, and it seemed that the ionized gas within the fire was detecting the radio signal. He realized that the device would be dangerous to use with the open flame, so he made up a light bulb which contained some of the gas used in the bunsen burner and the two wires. He also tried using the filament as one of the wires. His detector worked, but it was probably using the thermionic emission principle rather than his ionized gas theory, and thus was in violation of Flemings patent by using the 'Edison Effect'. He tried re-arranging the elements within the bulb, and also filled the bulb with different gases, along with a vacuum. One of these combinations showed promise, that of the three element triode. So by blind luck, and lots of experiments (a method also used by Edison, DeForest stumbled upon the triode tube. He never really understood how it worked, so most vacuum tube circuits were later perfected by Armstrong, and other engineers working at RCA.
His business tactics were bordering on selling snake oil, but in many ways Edison was no better.
Edison also didn't truly invent many of his patented discoveries, but he did vastly improve upon the work of others. The electric light is a good example of that, as there were other examples of incandescent electric lights already in existence when Edison started his experiments. However none of these combined the three important elements that made Edison's bulb unique, a high voltage, low current filament, a slender heated element instead of a large one, and operation in a vacuum instead of open in air.
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Christopher
DeForest was a self-aggrandizing ass! His repeated attempts--and ultimate success--at robbing Edwin Howard Armstrong of his patent. as well as his rightful place as the inventor of the practical radio receiver, eventually drove Armstrong to suicide, along with what David Sarnoff also did to Armstrong. Later on, DeForest attempted to take credit for--and steal--the early practical and patentable format(s) for sound recording. (for more on that, watch the excellent documentary The Dawn of Sound--How Movies Learned to Talk (this documentary is included in The Jazz Singer boxed set Special Features disc. As one of the historians in Ken Burns' excellent film Empire of the Air (which was based on Tom Lewis' excellent book of the same name) points out: DeForest always thought in terms of a patent. It didn't matter if something didn't work--always think in terms of a patent. He was like a doodler. who didn't work with pen and ink but took objects like little tubes and wires and put them together and then applied for a patent. When he was suing Armstrong in one of many frivolous moves, he was put on the stand and never could explain how his vacuum tube worked. Whenever one of his many marriages ended, he always cried foul and claimed his wives were jealous of his success and trying to steal (his) inventions. LOL! He was a hopeless con man with an ego longer than the reception range of a Zenith Stratocaster, and spent most of his life being full of shit--and of himself!
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DeForest was a self-aggrandizing ass! His repeated attempts--and ultimate success--at robbing Edwin Howard Armstrong of his patent. as well as his rightful place as the inventor of the practical radio receiver, eventually drove Armstrong to suicide, along with what David Sarnoff also did to Armstrong. Later on, DeForest attempted to take credit for--and steal--the early practical and patentable format(s) for sound recording. (for more on that, watch the excellent documentary The Dawn of Sound--How Movies Learned to Talk (this documentary is included in The Jazz Singer boxed set Special Features disc. As one of the historians in Ken Burns' excellent film Empire of the Air (which was based on Tom Lewis' excellent book of the same name) points out: DeForest always thought in terms of a patent. It didn't matter if something didn't work--always think in terms of a patent. He was like a doodler. who didn't work with pen and ink but took objects like little tubes and wires and put them together and then applied for a patent. When he was suing Armstrong in one of many frivolous moves, he was put on the stand and never could explain how his vacuum tube worked. Whenever one of his many marriages ended, he always cried foul and claimed his wives were jealous of his success and trying to steal (his) inventions. LOL! He was a hopeless con man with an ego longer than the reception range of a Zenith Stratocaster, and spent most of his life being full of shit--and of himself!
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Alan
When I first got interested in radio, probably age 8, for some reason De Forest was my first hero. Also Edison, because this was New Jersey and we would go visit his labs on school field trips. This was 60 years ago, and my older brother had left some electronic parts and wires in a box in our attic that I fooled with but they were not enough to actually get anything done. Later on, on another school trip we visited the RCA tube factory in Harrison NJ, fantastic old brick buildings from the 1880's that RCA actually bought from Edison. The machines that built up the tubes were just fascinating and I have been searching for years to find footage of those machines working. Mesmerizing, though after 8 hours (as a factory worker) they would be irritating.
It was several years later that I discovered that De Forest never had the slightest idea how his Audion worked, nor how the external components used in circuits related to the internal elements of the tube. No idea whatsoever. Whereas Armstrong was a revolutionary, spectacular genius.
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When I first got interested in radio, probably age 8, for some reason De Forest was my first hero. Also Edison, because this was New Jersey and we would go visit his labs on school field trips. This was 60 years ago, and my older brother had left some electronic parts and wires in a box in our attic that I fooled with but they were not enough to actually get anything done. Later on, on another school trip we visited the RCA tube factory in Harrison NJ, fantastic old brick buildings from the 1880's that RCA actually bought from Edison. The machines that built up the tubes were just fascinating and I have been searching for years to find footage of those machines working. Mesmerizing, though after 8 hours (as a factory worker) they would be irritating.
It was several years later that I discovered that De Forest never had the slightest idea how his Audion worked, nor how the external components used in circuits related to the internal elements of the tube. No idea whatsoever. Whereas Armstrong was a revolutionary, spectacular genius.
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tomlynntigard
The fact remains that without the discovery of the Triode there would be no amplifiers, no oscillators (that are efficient, and practical detectors for receivers. It may have taken 20 or 30 more years without deForest's Triode or Audion as he had named it. He may not have understood the electrical theory behind it and, yes, he may have done a lot of fraud, and grandstanding; but without his tinkering that found the function of a third element in a tube, we might still have regular TV at this date, but maybe not HD yet! Inventions or discoveries are in a time-line. deForest contributed a important part that, if not found in the early 1900's, may have delayed a lot of further discoveries. It may not seem like a genius discovery, but to think of the flow of electrons being able to be controlled by another grid element between a cathode (or negatively charged heater grid at the time) and anode within a heated vacuum is a big enough discovery for him to say he was Father of Radio more so than Marconi in my opinion.
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The fact remains that without the discovery of the Triode there would be no amplifiers, no oscillators (that are efficient, and practical detectors for receivers. It may have taken 20 or 30 more years without deForest's Triode or Audion as he had named it. He may not have understood the electrical theory behind it and, yes, he may have done a lot of fraud, and grandstanding; but without his tinkering that found the function of a third element in a tube, we might still have regular TV at this date, but maybe not HD yet! Inventions or discoveries are in a time-line. deForest contributed a important part that, if not found in the early 1900's, may have delayed a lot of further discoveries. It may not seem like a genius discovery, but to think of the flow of electrons being able to be controlled by another grid element between a cathode (or negatively charged heater grid at the time) and anode within a heated vacuum is a big enough discovery for him to say he was Father of Radio more so than Marconi in my opinion.
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Alastair
Hi Dr Kathy. As I've pointed to you before, the vacuum tube was invented by Englishman Dr John Fleming. His 'thermionic valve', a two electrode diode, consisted of a metallic anode and incandescent cathode in the hardest available vacuum, contained in a glass envelope. It was the world's first electronic radio wave detector/demodulator - used for both telegraphy AND AM telephony - and later applied (in WW2) as an RF oscillator at UHF/SHF wavelengths. De Forest's Audion was NOT a vacuum tube because he insisted it required the presence of GAS molecules to operate. It was therefore a low pressure gas, not a vacuum, tube and behaved not so much as a triode but as a thyratron, a fast electronic switch later used as a radar modulator. Useful, but NOTHING to do with broadcast radio. The Audion was pretty much useless until Armstrong (or was it really the Europeans) developed the principle of regeneration and until Langmuir and Arnold at RCA turned it into a triode by proper vacuum techniques.
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Hi Dr Kathy. As I've pointed to you before, the vacuum tube was invented by Englishman Dr John Fleming. His 'thermionic valve', a two electrode diode, consisted of a metallic anode and incandescent cathode in the hardest available vacuum, contained in a glass envelope. It was the world's first electronic radio wave detector/demodulator - used for both telegraphy AND AM telephony - and later applied (in WW2) as an RF oscillator at UHF/SHF wavelengths. De Forest's Audion was NOT a vacuum tube because he insisted it required the presence of GAS molecules to operate. It was therefore a low pressure gas, not a vacuum, tube and behaved not so much as a triode but as a thyratron, a fast electronic switch later used as a radar modulator. Useful, but NOTHING to do with broadcast radio. The Audion was pretty much useless until Armstrong (or was it really the Europeans) developed the principle of regeneration and until Langmuir and Arnold at RCA turned it into a triode by proper vacuum techniques.
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education
It's easy to call someone a con artist and get clickbait traffic, but the fact is that every inventor has built upon the work of other inventors in their quest to create something new. (As Don Draper says, Why re-invent the wheel) Lee de Forest grew up dirt poor and he was taken advantage of and maligned because he couldn't afford the slick legal teams that big companies have. And he needed money. So he sold his inventions for much less than they were worth, trusted people he shouldn't have trusted, and probably borrowed too freely from others. He was a terrible businessman and had a hankering for fame, this is true, and these faults were self-defeating. But he also worked incredibly hard for years to devise inventions that bettered society, and had sincere intentions to improve the world. He was not perfect but he was not a con artist. What have you ever invented that changed the world? It's not as easy as it seems.
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It's easy to call someone a con artist and get clickbait traffic, but the fact is that every inventor has built upon the work of other inventors in their quest to create something new. (As Don Draper says, Why re-invent the wheel) Lee de Forest grew up dirt poor and he was taken advantage of and maligned because he couldn't afford the slick legal teams that big companies have. And he needed money. So he sold his inventions for much less than they were worth, trusted people he shouldn't have trusted, and probably borrowed too freely from others. He was a terrible businessman and had a hankering for fame, this is true, and these faults were self-defeating. But he also worked incredibly hard for years to devise inventions that bettered society, and had sincere intentions to improve the world. He was not perfect but he was not a con artist. What have you ever invented that changed the world? It's not as easy as it seems.
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MichaelJGrant
Lee de Forest, not unlike many others in the early years of electricity and radio, made more than a few loose screws not all in their inventions. Lee de Forest died a bitter old man. deForest decided to settle the question once and for all who invented radio. He mailed an envelope addressed to simply to The Father of Radio relying on the United States Post Office to make the determination. He never received the letter much to his surprise and disappointment. Lee de Forest should not be confused with deForest Kelley, the actor who portrayed Bones McCoy, the ship's surgeon on the Enterprise. Dr. McCoy was quite accomplished in his own right, winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the 23rd Century for establishing a hereditary link to chronic diaherria. He proved it runs in a person''s jeans.
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Lee de Forest, not unlike many others in the early years of electricity and radio, made more than a few loose screws not all in their inventions. Lee de Forest died a bitter old man. deForest decided to settle the question once and for all who invented radio. He mailed an envelope addressed to simply to The Father of Radio relying on the United States Post Office to make the determination. He never received the letter much to his surprise and disappointment. Lee de Forest should not be confused with deForest Kelley, the actor who portrayed Bones McCoy, the ship's surgeon on the Enterprise. Dr. McCoy was quite accomplished in his own right, winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the 23rd Century for establishing a hereditary link to chronic diaherria. He proved it runs in a person''s jeans.
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Rhonda
Hi my name is Rhonda Lynn Pickett Etc the radip and I have been contact for a long time trying to figure out the problem O found out who I am maybe there was a radio communicatedthough back than lI am a lebeessee female from Lebtonon there was a plane crash and I was the only survivor somebody picked me up and I was with him for awhile and we were depressed I was three countries away from here and I am ready to go now we have been in contact you can also contact them too How are you enjoying my babies I am not sure how far I went back but you have to meet them let them interview for you and maybe as well get closer to home you let them do a show they are really talented but those people are doing something with our heads and radiator zooming in and out targeting
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Hi my name is Rhonda Lynn Pickett Etc the radip and I have been contact for a long time trying to figure out the problem O found out who I am maybe there was a radio communicatedthough back than lI am a lebeessee female from Lebtonon there was a plane crash and I was the only survivor somebody picked me up and I was with him for awhile and we were depressed I was three countries away from here and I am ready to go now we have been in contact you can also contact them too How are you enjoying my babies I am not sure how far I went back but you have to meet them let them interview for you and maybe as well get closer to home you let them do a show they are really talented but those people are doing something with our heads and radiator zooming in and out targeting
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Alastair
Look, I know I have a bit of a thing about the Fleming (Marconi Co) vs de Forest spat. But, you know how harmful this protracted patent wrangling was to the US? NO Triode radio tubes were manufactured in the USA until 1920 because, legally, nobody could assemble them, let alone sell them there. Which is why France, Great Britain were commercially making triodes by the hundred thousands and why their radio industries got a huge advantage over America's and why at end of WW1, the armies of GB and France used modern tube radios whilst the USArmy Signal Corps was stuck with spark transmitters!
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Look, I know I have a bit of a thing about the Fleming (Marconi Co) vs de Forest spat. But, you know how harmful this protracted patent wrangling was to the US? NO Triode radio tubes were manufactured in the USA until 1920 because, legally, nobody could assemble them, let alone sell them there. Which is why France, Great Britain were commercially making triodes by the hundred thousands and why their radio industries got a huge advantage over America's and why at end of WW1, the armies of GB and France used modern tube radios whilst the USArmy Signal Corps was stuck with spark transmitters!
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Graeme
A long time ago, I worked in the eletronics calibration lab at the (now closed) Naval Shipyard in Charleston SC. At one time, probably after the government's decision to close the shipyard had been announced, several of us were clearing out and inventorying the contents of some large storage cabinets of electronic parts. At the back of one of the lower drawers, I found several dusty DeForest vacuum tubes, in the original boxes, with Lee DeForest's signature stamped on the bases. If I was a less honest person, one of those might have joined my personal collection.
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A long time ago, I worked in the eletronics calibration lab at the (now closed) Naval Shipyard in Charleston SC. At one time, probably after the government's decision to close the shipyard had been announced, several of us were clearing out and inventorying the contents of some large storage cabinets of electronic parts. At the back of one of the lower drawers, I found several dusty DeForest vacuum tubes, in the original boxes, with Lee DeForest's signature stamped on the bases. If I was a less honest person, one of those might have joined my personal collection.
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Mary
It all comes down to early original vision, a demonstration of that vision plus the technical ability to actually broadcast. So, while Lee de Forest dreamed of making lots of money a Canadian living in the United States broadcast a program of his own music and words. It was December 1906 and Reginald Fessenden accomplished the first radio broadcast. Not KDKA or CFCF. The first broadcast featuring both music and speech belongs to a Canadian living in the USA. Talk about going down the road and accomplishing something big and important.
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It all comes down to early original vision, a demonstration of that vision plus the technical ability to actually broadcast. So, while Lee de Forest dreamed of making lots of money a Canadian living in the United States broadcast a program of his own music and words. It was December 1906 and Reginald Fessenden accomplished the first radio broadcast. Not KDKA or CFCF. The first broadcast featuring both music and speech belongs to a Canadian living in the USA. Talk about going down the road and accomplishing something big and important.
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Robert
I disagree Lee Deforest was a 'con man'. I think that is a superficial judgement. I think he believed in what he was selling. De Forest was a great inventor and a complex character. Some ideas are so obvious in technology everybody thinks of them. The early history of radio had much low hanging fruit. That is not stealing. If he did half of the great things you admitted he did then he doesn't deserve to be called that. I wish you would stop trashing great inventors in your videos.
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I disagree Lee Deforest was a 'con man'. I think that is a superficial judgement. I think he believed in what he was selling. De Forest was a great inventor and a complex character. Some ideas are so obvious in technology everybody thinks of them. The early history of radio had much low hanging fruit. That is not stealing. If he did half of the great things you admitted he did then he doesn't deserve to be called that. I wish you would stop trashing great inventors in your videos.
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chan
Ty. DeForrest was also the first to put sound on film. This probably inspired wire and tape recorders which used magnetic intensity instead of light intensity on film to represent or store the sound. A crude wire recording concept was made by Valdemar Poulsen before DeForrest made his amplifier and later, sound on film and there is a good chance this inspired DeForrest somewhat. DeForrest made radio and all amplified things much more practical with his electronic amplifier.
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Ty. DeForrest was also the first to put sound on film. This probably inspired wire and tape recorders which used magnetic intensity instead of light intensity on film to represent or store the sound. A crude wire recording concept was made by Valdemar Poulsen before DeForrest made his amplifier and later, sound on film and there is a good chance this inspired DeForrest somewhat. DeForrest made radio and all amplified things much more practical with his electronic amplifier.
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kc4cvh
For whatever else may be said of him, De Forest created history's first amplifying device, an achievement of similar magnitude to James Watt's steam engine. If one wants to find a malefactor in the early history of radio, one need look no farther than David Sarnoff, a man who contributed nothing to the communications art and science, yet somehow managed to drain a vast fortune from the industry while his exploitation of Armstrong led to the latter's death.
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For whatever else may be said of him, De Forest created history's first amplifying device, an achievement of similar magnitude to James Watt's steam engine. If one wants to find a malefactor in the early history of radio, one need look no farther than David Sarnoff, a man who contributed nothing to the communications art and science, yet somehow managed to drain a vast fortune from the industry while his exploitation of Armstrong led to the latter's death.
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beetsinmyhouse
There's some criticism in the comments on Kathy's harsh take on LDF, but I think the most important takeaway is how LDF clearly knew how important it was to control a narrative. He did take credit for others work and combined that with his own ideas, but he positioned himself as the Father of Radio in a way many others who had that opportunity could not have. It makes an interesting story. I guess from there, we can judge his character
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There's some criticism in the comments on Kathy's harsh take on LDF, but I think the most important takeaway is how LDF clearly knew how important it was to control a narrative. He did take credit for others work and combined that with his own ideas, but he positioned himself as the Father of Radio in a way many others who had that opportunity could not have. It makes an interesting story. I guess from there, we can judge his character
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Mary
Lee de Forest copied others who had the original ideas. In summary Lee de Forrest did what the Japanese did later on when they copied television technology developed in the US. The real Kudos goes rightly to Reginald Fessenden. His broadcast may not have been amplified by tubes but it was the first program of music featuring Fessenden's violin and his own words, words and music on the air.
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Lee de Forest copied others who had the original ideas. In summary Lee de Forrest did what the Japanese did later on when they copied television technology developed in the US. The real Kudos goes rightly to Reginald Fessenden. His broadcast may not have been amplified by tubes but it was the first program of music featuring Fessenden's violin and his own words, words and music on the air.
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Alastair
So, he's ithe father of radio BROADCASTING not 'radio'. Marconi had already created a GLOBAL empire of commercial wireless telegraphy - and disseminating publicly receivable telegraphic news, weather, shipping and stock ticket reports WAS a form of 'broadcasting' that pre-dated de Forest. Whether or not Marconi 'invented' radio is irrelevant. He WAS its father.
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So, he's ithe father of radio BROADCASTING not 'radio'. Marconi had already created a GLOBAL empire of commercial wireless telegraphy - and disseminating publicly receivable telegraphic news, weather, shipping and stock ticket reports WAS a form of 'broadcasting' that pre-dated de Forest. Whether or not Marconi 'invented' radio is irrelevant. He WAS its father.
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Kieran
Kathy, that was awesome. Another brilliant source of light amidst the void. (I'm dealing with depression - your videos are helping an awful lot) nice one: ) let's go! she says, and i just start smiling, and soaking up the history, and the OUTRAGEOUS INTRIGUE that Kathy uncovers! It's shocking! How human, our heroes. deep gratitude K! from me and my cat x
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Kathy, that was awesome. Another brilliant source of light amidst the void. (I'm dealing with depression - your videos are helping an awful lot) nice one: ) let's go! she says, and i just start smiling, and soaking up the history, and the OUTRAGEOUS INTRIGUE that Kathy uncovers! It's shocking! How human, our heroes. deep gratitude K! from me and my cat x
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Mark
Marconi did the same. Today Elon Musk, learning from all the patent thieves, has taken the option to lisence any who come forward. That is an option when seeking a patent. Everyone sees and uses the patents but must keep good faith. This stops the fighting and delays in court. It also creates a much quicker and bigger market. Been there. He is the master.
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Marconi did the same. Today Elon Musk, learning from all the patent thieves, has taken the option to lisence any who come forward. That is an option when seeking a patent. Everyone sees and uses the patents but must keep good faith. This stops the fighting and delays in court. It also creates a much quicker and bigger market. Been there. He is the master.
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Marco
And I, a fellow citizen of Guglielmo Marconi, who as a child believed in the genius of these romantic individuals, only to discover, later, that they were all greedy businessmen.
De Forest did not invent the triode at all.
Although he considered himself a genius, in the eyes of modern man he is more and more a fool full of himself.
Puah!
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And I, a fellow citizen of Guglielmo Marconi, who as a child believed in the genius of these romantic individuals, only to discover, later, that they were all greedy businessmen.
De Forest did not invent the triode at all.
Although he considered himself a genius, in the eyes of modern man he is more and more a fool full of himself.
Puah!
reply
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