INVENTOR

Lee de Forest

1873 - 1961

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Icon of person Lee de Forest

Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor, electrical engineer and an early pioneer in electronics of fundamental importance. He invented the first practical electronic amplifier, the three-element "Audion" triode vacuum tube in 1906. This helped start the Electronic Age, and enabled the development of the electronic oscillator. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Lee de Forest has received more than 805,472 page views. His biography is available in 51 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). Lee de Forest is the 111th most popular inventor (up from 124th in 2019), the 1,331st most popular biography from United States (up from 1,569th in 2019) and the 27th most popular American Inventor.

Memorability Metrics

  • 810k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.81

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 51

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.55

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.20

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Lee de Forest ranks 111 out of 426. Before him are Edmund Cartwright, Joseph Pilates, Johann Philipp Reis, Clément Ader, Abraham-Louis Breguet, and Gaston Glock. After him are Léon Theremin, Alfred Krupp, Zacharias Janssen, Charles-Émile Reynaud, Josiah Warren, and André Michelin.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1873, Lee de Forest ranks 34. Before him are Christian Rakovsky, Feodor Chaliapin, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Ivanoe Bonomi, Charles Péguy, and Ray Ewry. After him are Alexander Bogdanov, Radoje Domanović, Tullio Levi-Civita, Robert Wiene, Hayim Nahman Bialik, and Constantin Carathéodory. Among people deceased in 1961, Lee de Forest ranks 23. Before him are Zog I of Albania, Paul Landowski, Kurt Meyer, Luigi Einaudi, Dashiell Hammett, and Maria of Yugoslavia. After him are Akiba Rubinstein, Blaise Cendrars, Arthur Drewry, Wolfgang von Trips, Eero Saarinen, and Mukhtar Auezov.

Others Born in 1873

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Others Deceased in 1961

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Lee de Forest ranks 1,331 out of 20,380. Before him are Michael Rockefeller (1938), Mark Ruffalo (1967), J. K. Simmons (1955), Dr. Dre (1965), Ronald Dworkin (1931), and William Boeing (1881). After him are Jean Tatlock (1914), Raoul Walsh (1887), Eric Roberts (1956), John Updike (1932), Fredric Brown (1906), and Madam C. J. Walker (1867).

Others born in United States

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Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Lee de Forest ranks 27. Before him are George Eastman (1854), Ray Tomlinson (1941), Elisha Otis (1811), Leo Fender (1909), Robert Noyce (1927), and Jacque Fresco (1916). After him are Josiah Warren (1798), Hiram Maxim (1840), Percy Spencer (1894), Mary Anderson (1862), Elisha Gray (1835), and Richard Jordan Gatling (1818).

American born Inventors

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