Audion Audion The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest in 1906. It was the first triode, consisting of an evacuated glass tube containing three electrodes: a heated filament, a grid, and a plate. It is important in the history of technology because it was the first widely used electronic device which could amplify; a small electrical signal applied to the grid could control a larger current flowing from the filament to plate. The original triode Audion had more residual gas in the tube than later versions and vacuum tubes; the
Owen Williams (engineer) excelled in mathematics. He was apprenticed to the Electrical Tramways Co. in London in 1907 and at the same time did an engineering degree at the University of London. In 1912 Williams assumed a position as engineer and designer with the Trussed Concrete Company. Seven years later, he started his own consulting firm, Williams Concrete Structures. He was then appointed chief consulting civil engineer to the British Empire Exhibition which included the old Wembley Stadium. The commission also included the Palace of Industry building in Brent, the first building in the United Kingdom to use concrete as the exterior. The