1906 And All That

Appearing in this issue (p. 1253) is a lengthy correspondence, comment, rebuttal, and surrebuttal, on certain aspects of electronic history dating back to the invention of the triode tube. Edited by the writers themselves, this material at one time numbered some hundreds of typewritten pages, and well illustrated the uncertainties inherent in the recording of history. As long as each of us is free to use his own eyes and ears, we must realize that history can only be a collection of subjective observations and semantic interpretations, occasionally made more precise with written record — the latter again subject to the vagaries of translation of our changing languages.

This column is written not to take sides in the various matters discussed, but to comment on how much was accomplished in those early days of the triode. Having read the complete cases as presented, it would appear that, prior to Langmuir’s publication of the three-halves power law in 1913, there was little general understanding or knowledge of the volt-ampere curve of a triode. Certainly the reported story of Fritz Lowenstein’s negative-grid patent would support this view. Yet today any college sophomore starts at that fundamental point in his education.

The discussion of the discovery of the amplifying properties of the triode, the high-vacuum controversy, or whether the U. S. government (Army or Navy) had an airplane in 1916, all contribute to a fuller realization of our sophistication of today, of the terrific advances of which electronics has been a part for over fifty years. Be humble in reading these bits of history — could we have done so much with so little?