Fleming valve valve proved to be the start of a technological revolution. After reading Fleming's 1905 paper on his oscillation valve, American engineer Lee DeForest in 1906 created a three-element vacuum tube, the Audion, by adding a wire grid between cathode and anode. It was the first electronic amplifying device, allowing the creation of amplifiers and continuous wave oscillators. De Forest quickly refined his device into the triode, which became the basis of long-distance telephone and radio communications, radars, and early digital computers for 50 years, until the advent of the transistor in the 1960s. Fleming sued De Forest for infringing his
David Davies (electrical engineer) David Davies (electrical engineer) Sir David Evan Naunton Davies , known as Den Davies or David "DEN" Davies, (born 1935) is a British electrical engineer and educator. He was knighted for services to science in 1994. 1985-1988: Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL), and holder of the Pender Chair, having already been lecturing there, in "Communications Systems", for many years prior to that. 1986-1988: Vice-Provost of University College London 1988-1993: Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University 1993–1999: Chief Scientific Adviser for the Ministry of Defence 1994-1995: President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers