Facts
Why It Is OpenDe Forest patented the Audion triode in 1907 but, by most engineering historians' account, did not understand why it amplified a signal. Edwin Armstrong worked out the regenerative feedback mechanism that explained and dramatically improved that amplification around 1912-1913. De Forest then filed competing patent applications claiming he had found regeneration first, based on a 1912 notebook entry, and the priority fight over who actually understood the mechanism reached the US Supreme Court in 1934, which ruled for de Forest on narrow patent grounds even though most engineers and historians credit Armstrong's account of how and why the tube amplifies. 1 What Would Resolve ThisThe dispute is over documentary interpretation of surviving notebooks and patent filings rather than new data; a historian's definitive reassessment of the 1912 de Forest notebook entry against Armstrong's own dated laboratory notes would be the closest thing to resolution the field could produce. 1 Discipline NeededHistory of Technology, Electrical Engineering History 1 Question Kind Question Status Reader Facing Open Question
De Forest patented the Audion triode in 1907 but, by most engineering historians' account, did not understand why it amplified a signal. Edwin Armstrong worked out the regenerative feedback mechanism that explained and dramatically improved that amplification around 1912-1913. De Forest then filed competing patent applications claiming he had found regeneration first, based on a 1912 notebook entry, and the priority fight over who actually understood the mechanism reached the US Supreme Court in 1934, which ruled for de Forest on narrow patent grounds even though most engineers and historians credit Armstrong's account of how and why the tube amplifies.
What would resolve this The dispute is over documentary interpretation of surviving notebooks and patent filings rather than new data; a historian's definitive reassessment of the 1912 de Forest notebook entry against Armstrong's own dated laboratory notes would be the closest thing to resolution the field could produce.
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