Book ID: CBB001421336

Lee De Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film (2012)

unapi

Adams, Michael H (Author)


Copernicus Books


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: xvii + 553 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English

The life-long inventor, Lee de Forest invented the three-element vacuum tube used between 1906 and 1916 as a detector, amplifier, and oscillator of radio waves. Beginning in 1918 he began to develop a light valve, a device for writing and reading sound using light patterns. While he received many patents for his process, he was initially ignored by the film industry. In order to promote and demonstrate his process he made several hundred sound short films, he rented space for their showing; he sold the tickets and did the publicity to gain audiences for his invention. Lee de Forest officially brought sound to film in 1919. Lee De Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film is about both invention and early film making; de Forest as the scientist and producer, director, and writer of the content. This book tells the story of de Forest's contribution in changing the history of film through the incorporation of sound. The text includes primary source historical material, U.S. patents and richly-illustrated photos of Lee de Forest's experiments. Readers will greatly benefit from an understanding of the transition from silent to audio motion pictures, the impact this had on the scientific community and the popular culture, as well as the economics of the entertainment industry.

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Description On the American inventor Lee de Forest.


Reviewed By

Review Frost, Gary (2014) Review of "Lee De Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film". Technology and Culture (pp. 751-752). unapi

Citation URI
http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001421336/

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Authors & Contributors
Pursell, Carroll W.
Taylor, Nick
Matsuura, Jeffrey H.
Telotte, J. P.
Phillips, William
Mercelis, Joris
Journals
Technology and Culture
American Heritage of Invention and Technology
Science-Fiction Studies
Business and Economic History On-Line
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Revue Économiques
Publishers
Simon & Schuster
University of Virginia Press
University of Minnesota Press
Transcript
Cornell University Press
Concepts
Inventors and invention
Patents
Broadcasting, radio and television
Intellectual property
Technological innovation
Motion pictures; cinema; movies
People
Gould, Gordon
Jefferson, Thomas
Baekland, Leo Hendrik
Barker, Robert
Sarnoff, David
Armstrong, Edwin Howard
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
18th century
Places
United States
Germany
France
Massachusetts (U.S.)
Great Britain
London (England)
Institutions
Walt Disney Company
Radio Corporation of America
Bell Telephone Laboratories
American Patent Agency
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