INVENTOR

Lee de Forest

1873 - 1961

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Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor, electrical engineer and an 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, and led to the development of talking motion pictures, among countless other applications. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Lee de Forest is the 24th most popular inventor (up from 111th in 2019), the 261st most popular biography from United States (up from 1,331st in 2019) and the 5th most popular American Inventor.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Lee de Forest ranks 24 out of 426Before him are Cai Lun, Nicéphore Niépce, Karl Ferdinand Braun, George Stephenson, Hans Lippershey, and Eli Whitney. After him are Bartolomeo Cristofori, Werner von Siemens, John Logie Baird, Denis Papin, Thomas Newcomen, and Abbas ibn Firnas.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1873, Lee de Forest ranks 6Before him are Sergei Rachmaninoff, Thérèse of Lisieux, Thomas Andrews, Enrico Caruso, and Johannes V. Jensen. After him are Leon Czolgosz, Konstantin von Neurath, Colette, Jules Rimet, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, and Alexis Carrel. Among people deceased in 1961, Lee de Forest ranks 9Before him are Erwin Schrödinger, Zog I of Albania, Dag Hammarskjöld, Patrice Lumumba, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Emily Greene Balch. After him are Jules Bordet, Gary Cooper, Percy Williams Bridgman, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edith Wilson, and Mohammed V of Morocco.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Lee de Forest ranks 261 out of 20,380Before him are Sigourney Weaver (1949), Joseph Heller (1923), Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866), John Holmes (1944), Ben Affleck (1972), and Robert Andrews Millikan (1868). After him are Johnny Depp (1963), John Quincy Adams (1767), Charles Taze Russell (1852), Dale Carnegie (1888), O. J. Simpson (1947), and Kanye West (1977).

Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Lee de Forest ranks 5Before him are Thomas Edison (1847), Henry Ford (1863), Samuel Morse (1791), and Eli Whitney (1765). After him are Jimmy Wales (1966), Samuel Colt (1814), Bob Kahn (1938), Herman Hollerith (1860), Robert Fulton (1765), Steve Wozniak (1950), and George Westinghouse (1846).