德福雷斯特(1873～1961年)

De Forest, Lee

美国发明家。十三岁时就发明了许多东西，其中包括一种实用的镀银仪器。从耶鲁大学获物理学博士学位後，创建了德福雷斯特无线电报公司（De Forest Wireless Telegraph Co., 1902），他公开演示用於商业、新闻、军事的无线电报通信装置。1907年他取得三极检波管（Audion）的发明专利权，1923～1927年期间他发明在影片边上录上声音信号的有声影片。几年後普遍使用的有声影片，原理上和他发明的基本一样。他没有生意头脑，加上识人不清，两度被合夥人诈骗。最後对生意或制造业感到失望，把专利权以低价卖给像美国电话电报公司（American Telephone & Telegraph Co.）之类的公司，它们後来在商业上的成功发展获利极高。虽然有苦说不出，但他被普遍尊为「无线电之父」、「电视之祖」。

English version：

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.