the man who put a voice inside a vacuum tube, then spent decades in court proving it.
means lee de forest was the american inventor who created the audion, the first amplifying vacuum tube, laying the groundwork for radio, tv, and modern electronics.
from in 1906 de forest added a third electrode, a grid, to the two-electrode vacuum diode, creating a device that could amplify weak electrical signals; he called it the audion, and it became the foundational component of nearly every electronic device for the next half century until the transistor replaced it.
audion tube — 1906 invention that made radio amplification and long-distance broadcasting possible
phonofilm — his sound-on-film system used in short films throughout the early 1920s
de forest v armstrong — decades-long patent fight over the regeneration circuit, decided in 1934