Vacuum Tube

Initially, John Ambrose Fleming utilized his invention of the simplest diode vacuum tube to detect radio signals. This diode had a heated filament that aided in the tube's ability to pass current in one direction. However, his invention could not emit electrons and was primarily helpful in detection. These diodes were very reliable and physically stable and were therefore used on naval ships to detect signals even when the stability of the ships were compromised. Later, Robert von Lieben invented the triode vacuum tube which made it possible to amplify audio signals. It was Lieben's intention to use this device to bring us closer to a version of telephones. This triode was then refined by several physicists, resulting in its crucial use in radio transmitters and receivers. At the same time, this kind of tube helped develop the first loud speaker. In a triode, a piece of the tube called the plate was heated in addition to the filament, and this allows the tube to pass current in both directions. The vacuum tube became useful with television and picture when it was discovered that if an electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface within a cathode ray tube (a variety of a vacuum tube) it can produce pictures. Karl Ferdinand Braun had originally discovered that a cathode ray tube produced light in 1897, however they were used  later on for screens when multiple beams were utilized to produce more colors and pictures. In the making of computers, tubes were deemed too unreliable due to the fact that they fail in a short period of time. It was discovered that if many small independent tubes were utilized at the same time, if one failed, the others could continue, which all eventually developed into electronic switches. The first computers were tube based in this way and the tubes created a circuit. They used mostly triodes and pentodes as amplifying factors and switches to perform logic functions. Eventually monitors were incorporated and used the same cathode ray tubes to produce screen pictures.