The American inventor Lee De Forest (1873-1961) pioneered in radio, both in developing broadcasting and in inventing the audion. He is considered one of the fathers of radio.

Lee De Forest was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1873, where his father was a minister. While Lee was still a boy, his father became the president of the College for the Colored in Talladega, Ala. Because of his father's association with African Americans, young Lee was shunned by playmates and sought relief from his loneliness in invention and mechanics. He took bachelor of science and doctor of philosophy degrees from Yale in 1896 and 1899. He then went to work for the Western Electric Company in Chicago.

During the 1890s Guglielmo Marconi transmitted radio waves over increasing distances; his work culminated in 1901 with a transatlantic message. The new field of radio attracted many inventors, among them De Forest. In 1910 he literally...