100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELECTRONICS.

Researchers are marking November 16, 2004 as the 100th birthday of
electronics, which began with British scientist John Ambrose Fleming's
1904 invention of the first practical electronic device. Known as the
thermionic diode, this first simple vacuum tube, containing only two
electrodes, could be used to convert an alternating current (ac) to a
direct current (dc). A special AVS meeting session, taking place
exactly 100 years after the day that Fleming applied for a British
patent on the diode, will celebrate this seminal invention and the
subsequent evolution of electronic components based on vacuum devices.
(Contact Fred Dylla, Jefferson Lab in Virginia, , and
Paul Redhead of the National Research Council in Canada,
; more information on this and other AVS meeting
stories at http://www2.avs.org/symposium/anahei...sroom/news.pdf)


.... That was a fascinating period of time for electronics

The old training used to say "there are only three circuits, rectifiers,
amplifiers and oscillators". I wonder if that could be disproven today, think
about it, even a gate array in a computer is in some way a programmable
rectifier/selectable amplifier. Even the first amplifier could be switched off,
and even a digital two state bipolar device in a NAND gate is an inverting
amplifier, and several diodes (rectifiers) at the base will make it function as
the output stage of a NAND gate.

What's all this mean ? Think about even a pentium 4, cache, RAM all of it. Can
you really say there is a circuit other than a rectifier, amplifier or
oscillator ? Everything that followed is all a complex arrangement between
these three circuits.

Therefore another momentus occasion must be similarly observed, if one is to do
justice to history.

Who was it that first put a grid between anode and cathode ? Was it Lee
DeForest ? Whoever they were, this grid was just as important to electronics.
Otherwise we wouldn't have anything but diodes, we could charge up batteries
and run light bulbs or motors, but there would never be electronics without it
IMO. The idea that you could actually amplify a signal is what really kicked it
all off.

JURB

"JURB6006" bravely wrote to "All" (23 Nov 04 01:40:13)
--- on the heady topic of " 100th Anniversary"

JU From: (JURB6006)

JU The old training used to say "there are only three circuits,
JU rectifiers, amplifiers and oscillators". I wonder if that could be
JU disproven today, think about it,

No, there are also resistors, capacitors, inductors, and switches.
There are filters of all kinds made with these. There is the phase
locked loop which also makes other types of devices possible. There
are a myriad other building blocks which aren't rectifiers,
amplifiers, or oscillators. That is way too simplistic!

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... Over a hundred billion electrons were used in crafting this tagline.

"Asimov" wrote in message
...
"JURB6006" bravely wrote to "All" (23 Nov 04 01:40:13)
--- on the heady topic of " 100th Anniversary"

JU From: (JURB6006)

JU The old training used to say "there are only three circuits,
JU rectifiers, amplifiers and oscillators". I wonder if that could be
JU disproven today, think about it,

No, there are also resistors, capacitors, inductors, and switches.
There are filters of all kinds made with these. There is the phase
locked loop which also makes other types of devices possible. There
are a myriad other building blocks which aren't rectifiers,
amplifiers, or oscillators. That is way too simplistic!

A*s*i*m*o*v

... Over a hundred billion electrons were used in crafting this tagline.


Perhaps that should have read, "active circuits".


Mark Z.