什麼是德福雷斯特

De Forest, Lee

美國發明家。十三歲時就發明了許多東西，其中包括一種實用的鍍銀儀器。從耶魯大學獲物理學博士學位後，創建了德福雷斯特無線電報公司（De Forest Wireless Telegraph Co., 1902），他公開演示用於商業、新聞、軍事的無線電報通信裝置。1907年他取得三極檢波管（Audion）的發明專利權，1923～1927年期間他發明在影片邊上錄上聲音信號的有聲影片。幾年後普遍使用的有聲影片，原理上和他發明的基本一樣。他沒有生意頭腦，加上識人不清，兩度被合夥人詐騙。最後對生意或製造業感到失望，把專利權以低價賣給像美國電話電報公司（American Telephone & Telegraph Co.）之類的公司，它們後來在商業上的成功發展獲利極高。雖然有苦說不出，但他被普遍尊爲「無線電之父」、「電視之祖」。

1873～1961年

De Forest, Lee

U.S. inventor. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he had invented many gadgets by age 13, including a working silverplating apparatus. After earning a Ph.D. from Yale Univ., he founded the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Co. (1902) and gave public demonstrations of wireless telegraphy, including a live performance by E. Caruso in 1910. In 1907 he patented the Audion vacuum tube. He developed a sound-on-film optical-recording system called Phonofilm and demonstrated it in theaters (1923-27). Though he was unable to interest film producers in its possibilities, the film industry soon converted to talking pictures using a similar process. A poor businessman and a poorer judge of people, he was twice defrauded by his business partners. Eventually despairing of success in business or manufacturing, he sold his patents at low prices to such firms as American Telephone & Telegraph Co., which profited highly from their commercial development. Though embittered, he was widely honored as the father of radio and the grandfather of television.