On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:08:05 GMT, Bob Quintal
wrote:

John Larkin wrote in
:

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.

Not much but some. Take for example the Detection and demodulation of
an audio signal using only a diode and a high impedance voltage to
sound transducer.


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

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

That article also says "Some common electronic components are
capacitors, resistors, diodes, transistors, etc."
.......................^^^^^^

The argument is philosophical.

Both the Edison effect and the Fleming tube were novelties. The Audion
changed the world.

John