Valve amplifier thermionic valves. The simplest valve was invented by John Ambrose Fleming while working for the Marconi Company in London in 1904 and named the diode, as it had two electrodes. The diode conducted electricity in one direction only and was used as a radio detector and a rectifier. In 1906 Lee De Forest added a third electrode and invented the first electronic amplifying device, the triode, which he named the "Audion". This additional "control grid" modulates the current that flows between cathode and anode. The relationship between current flow and plate and grid voltage is often represented as a series
Vienna valve trombone Vienna valve trombone Vienna valve trombones use Vienna Valves which were one of the earliest valve systems used in wind instruments. These valves were first publicly reported in 1815 and valved trombones were first introduced in the late 1830s. The Vienna valve was invented in Leipzig in 1821 by Sattler, predating the Perinet valve and rotary valve used in France and Germany (and in all French horns). The Vienna Valves (or Double Valves) have two short parallel pistons connected at the bottom by a bar that is moved by a long rod or linkage connected to the spring-loaded finger plate.