Control grid Control grid The control grid is an electrode used in amplifying thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) such as the triode, tetrode and pentode, used to control the flow of electrons from the cathode to the anode (plate) electrode. The control grid usually consists of a cylindrical screen or helix of fine wire surrounding the cathode, and is surrounded in turn by the anode. The control grid was invented by Lee De Forest, who in 1906 added a grid to the Fleming valve (thermionic diode) to create the first amplifying vacuum tube, the Audion (triode). In a valve, the hot cathode emits
William Bryson (electrical engineer) William Bryson (electrical engineer) William Alexander Bryson FRSE (2 March 1855 – 9 July 1906), was a Scottish electrical engineer. He was born on 2 March 1855, the son of Alexander Bryson and Elizabeth W. Gillespie. His grandfather was Robert Bryson. His mother died shortly after he was born, and his father, who remarried twice in the meantime, died when he was aged 11. He trained and worked as a Marine Engineer in Leith, and then moved to Glasgow as a consulting Electrical Engineer. There is a sketch of him by John Lavery in the Glasgow Museum Resource Centre. He