Audion
Electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube[1] invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest as a diode in 1906.[2][3][4][5] Improved, it was patented as the first triode in 1908,[1][6][7][8][9] consisting of an evacuated glass tube containing three electrodes: a heated filament (the cathode, made out of tantalum), a grid, and a plate (the anode).[4] It is important in the history of technology because it was the first widely used electronic device which could amplify.[4] A low power signal at the grid could control much more power in the plate circuit.
Audions had more residual gas than later vacuum tubes; the residual gas limited the dynamic range and gave the Audion non-linear characteristics and erratic performance.[1][8] Originally developed as a radio receiver detector[3] by adding a grid electrode to the Fleming valve, it found little use until its amplifying ability was recognized around 1912 by several researchers,[8][10] who used it to build the first amplifying radio receivers and electronic oscillators.[9][11] The many practical applications for amplification motivated its rapid development, and the original Audion was superseded within a few years by improved versions with a higher vacuum.[8][10]