On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:31:39 GMT, Bob Quintal
wrote:

John Larkin wrote in
:

On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:28:56 +0100, Eeyore
m wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Americans invented electronics

WRONG !

Never mind the early work of Faraday, Fleming et al, The first
'electronic' device, the diode, was invented by a Briton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Guthrie


I don't consider Fleming's diode to quite be "electronics" because it
didn't have gain.

That is the most stupid comment I've heard in the last 60 years.

"Electricity" is about moving power around. "Electronics" is about
using electricity to process information. You can't do much of that
without a fast gain element.

Wiki agrees with me that electronics really began with the invention
of the triode:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics

One can argue definitions, but I don't think you can do "electronics"
with just Fleming diodes, which are really Edison diodes. Electronics
exploded into existence with DeForest's invention of the triode.

John