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'de Forest', not 'De Forest
This may seem unimportant, but people get kinda funny when it comes to names.
I believe Lee's last name is 'de Forest', not 'De Forest'. I googled around and couldn't find anything diffinitive, so I'm not making the change without posting here first. Crag 00:21, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
- It may be correct in French, but I think the capital D is what he used. Arniep 21:17, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
I have three autograhs from various periods in his life and I have inspected several other autographs. As far as I can tell, he always signed his name "Lee de Forest."FLAHAM (talk) 17:44, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
- From page 365 of Tom Lewis' 1991 book, Empire of the Air: "Perceptive readers will notice that Lee de Forest spelled his name with a lowercase d, while his father, and the De Forest family, used an uppercase letter. Lee decided upon a lower case while at Yale, but his name was often spelled 'De Forest' up to the time of his death." Also, in his 1950 autobiography, Father of Radio, a footnote on page 12 reads "My father and grandfather preferred to capitalize the D. While at Yale my brother and I resumed the style of the earlier generations." Thomas H. White 19:56, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
- So out of respect for Mr. de Forest's preferences, we should switch to a lower-case 'd' when it doesn't begin a sentence, right? Crag 22:30, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
His name is Lee de Forest, not De Forest. Which means "De Forest" should redirect to "de Forest", not the other way around. His wiki page should be Lee de Forest. 21 Dec. 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.233.128.255 (talk) 19:25, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
The name on his gravestone:
de FOREST
and below that his and his wife's first names, LEE and MARIE
from this site: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=271
I reviewed a few of the patents for information about which spelling he used. Some of the patents only had his name spelled out in all caps. In at least one of the patents his name was spelled with the de in small caps.
Overall, a cursory review of what I could find on this issue seems to support the notion that the title of the article should be Lee de Forest, however I would guess that he never changed the name on his birth certificate and that was probably Lee De Forest and so theoretically his legal name might have been Lee De Forest. And the "This is Your Life" episode that he was featured on spelled his name with the De capitalized.
Right now, my vote would go for the lower case spelling, but I suspect the world doesn't hang on this issue. Davefoc (talk) 20:43, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
Do you think Council Bluffs, Iowa issued birth certificates in 1873?? FLAHAM (talk) 01:44, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
- I don't know, I thought they would have to tell you the truth. I assumed that birth certificates have been around for a long time. But even if they hadn't been, there were other potentially official ways of documenting a person's name near the time of his birth like church records. And if some official way of recording his birth existed it seems likely it used the capital De spelling that his parents used and it also seems likely that he never officially changed his name.
- However this isn't a very good argument for the use of his name with the de capitalized since the Misplaced Pages standard seems to be to use the name that a person is most well known by as the title of the article regardless of any lesser known more official name. And I think your evidence is fairly compelling that "Lee de Forest" is the best choice if that is the criteria. So I agree with you that the title of the article should be changed.Davefoc (talk) 09:57, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
Unsourced addition
I removed this until someone can provide a source.
However, it should be noted that De Forest actually, only developed a rough idea for this and that the system was actually created by Auburn, NY native Theodore Case who is now credited by many as being the true inventer of sound on film and therefore, many talking movies. Deforest, just as he did with the F.M. radio pretty much stole the idea and took all credit for it.
Arniep 21:16, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
DeForest patents
It does not do much good to post raw numbers for people who do not have TIFF software that can display US Patent images. DeForest is credited with many patents, and only the most important ones should be listed in the article. Please post bare numbers here so they can be evaluated for inclusion. If the intention is to list all of his patents, they would be better stored at Wikimedia, which is designed to archive such non-contextual data. --Blainster 17:20, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
- U.S. patent 0,926,933
- U.S. patent 0,926,934
- U.S. patent 0,926,936
- U.S. patent 0,926,937
- U.S. patent 1,214,283
Quicktime allows tiff viewing. QT is pretty common. DeForest is credited with many patents, and they all should be listed (eventually like Edison's patents and Tesla's patents). 204.56.7.1 19:28, 29 June 2006 (UTC) (PS., "lists of patents" is a legal topic and there is a category for them.)
- WP must serve all its users. If you wish to continue to post patents, please also list some basic information such as title, date, and subject along with the number. (Or are you unable to view them?) --Blainster 19:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Audion tube
The first version of the Audion was a diode developed in 1906. It was not until a year later that DeForest came up with the triode version, which most people are referring to when they use the term. He used the same name for both types of tubes, which can be confusing. --Blainster 14:36, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
De Forest took credit for the Audion which was invented by Edwin H. Armstrong, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. -- THe article lists both. Which is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.10.253.229 (talk) 15:59, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
More info in PBS Documentary - lowers de Forest reputation
I recently watched "Empire of the Air", a Ken Burns documentary. Lots of DeForest information in there that definitely makes one think the introductory paragraph of this article should probably not be so pro-deforest but more independent. One point was that during testimony he couldnt explain how some of his inventions worked, not really knowing, just copying others' work, adding stuff, "hey, it did something!" and patenting it.
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/
My Dad was the youngest & last employee hired at DeForest Labs. His name was Edward Henry Scott. He passed on several years ago. I grew up around Craig Kregbaum and Harold Wolf, early employees who worked with Dr. DeForest (or de Forest if you prefer). I suspect that Doc DeForest as he was known in my family chose to convert his name to DeForest for purposes of the company name, thinking that "de" was not a good way to start a company name. Everyone who worked for DeForest Labs had good things to say about Doc. His employees were very loyal to Doc. As far as I know Ken Burns never contacted anyone who actually worked for DeForest Labs when he made the PBS documentary. My Dad saw the Ken Burns' documentary as was a little offended by it pointing out that it seemed to paint an overly glowing picture of Armstrong, who as he said beat his wife with fire irons and ultimately jumped out of a window. FM was a very significant invention, but Armstrong was no great work as a human being.
Having known guys like Kregbaum who built very early tubes for DeForest used before and during WWI, I'd have to say that much of conjecture about "invention of the tube" presupposes that you needed to be fully conversant in theory of electronics in order to invent anything. Well, the fact was that electronic theory didn't yet exist. Kregbaum was fantastically talented inventor. I don't think he had any college but he invented and built many clever things. That was the nature of the times. They were tinkerers and fabricators of new gizmos, not teaching electronics courses at the university. They lived and breathed radio. I do not mean to disparage Ken Burns or his documentary on early day radio. I am actually a very big fan of most of what Ken Burns has accomplished. I think maybe though the PBS documentary treated Doc DeForest less favorably than my Dad felt about him or than learned from those early guys like Craig Kregbaum and Harold Wolf. They would not have known Doc as he was portrayed in the PBS documentary. Nobody I ever met who worked at DeForest Lab ever had anything bad to say about Doc. He was much loved by those who worked for him. That is at least something Armstrong could not claim I suspect.
My Dad went on to work as the Radio Officer for the City of Glendale, California where he put in the first microwave communications system for police and fire departments. As a result of doing that, both Motorola and RCA wanted to hire him as a systems engineer despite the fact that he had gone to college during the Great Depression and had to drop out after only one year because there was no money for college. He first went to work for Motorola but eventually switched to RCA where he enjoyed doing systems engineering in 2-way radio systems. Working with RCA factory engineers they solved many difficult 2-way radio problems at places like Scripps Institute of Oceanography and open pit copper mines. My Dad passed on several years ago.
Doc DeForest wrote a book on his own life and accomplishments. I would imagine that Ken Burns must have used it but felt that Doc wrote too favorable an account of his own life. Maybe he did ... I doubt anyone will really know for sure today. But what I can definitively say is that Doc was extremely well liked by everyone I ever met who worked for him. They all said DeForest Labs was the greatest place they ever worked.
I have a BSEE myself but my work was in computer hardware, software and systems engineering. - Ed Scott — Preceding unsigned comment added by TaosFarmer (talk • contribs) 04:30, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Tigerstedt's sound-on-film implementation and development of the triode vacuum valve
The Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt (credited with being the first to successfully implement sound-on-film) made dramatic improvements to the triode vacuum valve while working on a solution for sound amplification. While working in Berlin, Germany, Tigerstedt was awarded a German patent his for sound-on-film technology, which Lee De Forest seems to have built his subsequent sound-on-film implementation on. Does this warrant a reference in the article on Lee de Forest? --Grimne 23:47, 15 February 2007 (CET)
Parentage
I deleted the bit about his parents' being born in France, based on http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=tdowling&id=I80858 (or http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SHOW&db=tdowling&surname=DeForest%2C+Lee, click the pedigree link) 192.88.212.44 17:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
moved non sequitor from article
"Charles Herrold began broadcasting music and entertainment on a regular basis between 1912 and 1917 to fellow radio enthusiasts in the San Jose, California area, using the callsigns FN and SJN, but had to abandon broadcasting when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917."
You mention that you studied de Forest in a college class. Did you take an English class to earn that lofty degree? If so you would know that the previous posts would have been "too" (not "to") hard on de Forest. You might also have learned that to agree with something is to "jibe with" (not "jive with").
Other than those too...ooops...to...ooops two ignorant mistakes, your evaluation of the legacy of Lee de Forest is correct. He was a fake and should have landed in prison.
Of course we all understand that someone as important as yourself "doesn't have time to do the research...." That is what makes Misplaced Pages great: a million under-educated morons with no time and no knowledge writing illiterate articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.101.107 (talk) 22:47, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
To hard on De forest
We studied this once upon a time in a college class. My memory of that study does not at all jive with this article, though I don't have the time to do the research. Specifically, my recollection is that De Forest stumbled upon (invented or re-invented) an amp in the lab but could not explain mathematically how it worked on the stand. He lost early court cases when others with a better theoretical understanding could explain the devices operation. Broke Back Records (talk) 21:03, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
Lunar Crater
There is a lunar crater named de Forest (approx. 160 W, 78 S). Is it named for Lee de Forest? If so, it ought to be listed in the Legacy section. Rglovejoy (talk) 22:00, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
Diode vs. Triode tubes
The statement about the Audion/triode, "an improved version of John Fleming's recently invented diode vacuum tube detector." is not correct. The triode is not an "improvement" in that it works better than a diode tube, in fact it does a different function. The diode rectifies current (like a solid state diode) and the triode is the vacuum tube equivalent of a transister (or transient resistor).
Tsbrownie (talk) 06:18, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
- You're right, of course. The next paragraph talks about the foundational differences between the diode and the triode, so I've cut some of the redundancy out of the earlier paragraph. More to the point, I reworded the phrase "an improved version of..." Hopefully, this edit will help fix the problem. Binksternet (talk) 09:07, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
This section is confusing:
In January 1907, De Forest filed a patent for a two-electrode device for detecting electromagnetic waves, a variant of the Fleming valve invented two years earlier, AKA the diode vacuum tube detector. It was granted US Patent 879,532 in February 1908. It was a three-electrode device (plate, cathode, control grid), was a vacuum tube. It was also called the De Forest valve, and since 1919 has been known as the triode. De Forest's innovation was the insertion of a third electrode, the grid, in between the cathode (filament) and the anode (plate) of the previously invented diode.
The two electrode device was presumably a diode. US Patent 879,532 seems to be for the triode. It is possible that the first sentence was suppose to read:
In January 1907, De Forest filed a patent for a three-electrode device
for detecting electromagnetic waves, a variant of the Fleming valve invented two years earlier,AKA the diode vacuum tube detector.
The section would make sense with this change, but I am not sure that the change is accurate. Did de Forest ever patent an improvement of the diode or did he patent a new device that would be come known as the triode? Is the author of this section claiming that de Forest both invented an improved diode and then later a triode vacuum tube that could be used as an amplifier or is he just trying to say that de Forest invented the triode? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Davefoc (talk • contribs) 15:34, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
Firstfoxbat edited the section in question. The section now makes sense and the criticism above seems to have been dealt with. It seems that De Forest patented both a diode and a triode. I think this issue is now closed. Davefoc (talk) 17:44, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
ATT
According to the book " 100 Great Scientists" published by Washington Square Press page 390 Forest was paid by the ATT a sum of three hundred and ninety thousand dollars for the audion tube.Subzbharti (talk) 10:03, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Radio
The article implies that de Forest invented the word "radio." This is entirely inaccurate. FLAHAM (talk) 20:12, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
As a descendant of lee, it is spelled DeForest
as a descendant of lee it is spelled DeForest, no spaces or hyphens, as shown in the link below.
http://www.deforestcommunications.com/deforests/DeForest_Family_Tree.html
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