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93-614: In 1906, Russian-Armenian actor Nikita Balieff moved to Moscow, and took a job at the Moscow Art Theatre under Constantin Stanislavski . After years of only non-speaking roles, and with a desire to perform comedy rather than drama, Balieff, along with theatre devotee Nikolai Tarasov , co-created his own theatre group in a basement near the Moscow Art Theatre. He named the cabaret and troupe The Bat , after

186-653: A salon for Round Tablers away from the Algonquin Hotel . Acts included: "Opening Chorus" featuring Alexander Woollcott , John Peter Toohey , George S. Kaufman , Marc Connelly , Franklin P. Adams , and Benchley, with violinist Jascha Heifetz providing offstage, off-key accompaniment; "He Who Gets Flapped," a musical number featuring the song "The Everlastin' Ingenue Blues" written by Dorothy Parker and performed by Robert E. Sherwood accompanied by "chorus girls" including Tallulah Bankhead , Helen Hayes , Ruth Gillmore , Lenore Ulric , and Mary Brandon; "Zowie, or

279-524: A "cascade amplifier", which eventually consisted of chaining together up to three Audions. At this time the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was researching ways to amplify telephone signals to provide better long-distance service, and it was recognized that de Forest's device had potential as a telephone line repeater. In mid-1912 an associate, John Stone Stone , contacted AT&T to arrange for de Forest to demonstrate his invention. It

372-596: A Doctorate in 1899 with a dissertation on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", supervised by theoretical physicist Willard Gibbs . Reflecting his pioneering work, de Forest has sometimes been credited as the "Father of Radio", an honorific which he adopted as the title of his 1950 autobiography. In the late 1800s he became convinced there was a great future in radiotelegraphic communication (then known as " wireless telegraphy "), but Italian Guglielmo Marconi , who received his first patent in 1896,

465-597: A German, Alexander Meissner, whose application would be seized by the Office of Alien Property Custodian during World War I. The subsequent legal proceedings become divided between two groups of court cases. The first court action began in January 1920 when Armstrong, with Westinghouse, which purchased his patent, sued the De Forest Company in district court for infringement of patent 1,113,149. On May 17, 1921,

558-660: A bat flew up out of the basement door and landed on his hat. Chauve-Souris enjoyed much success and popularity in Moscow, until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Balieff then went into exile in Paris and began presenting vaudeville shows there with other Russian émigrés . He was noticed by the British theatrical producer Charles B. Cochran , who brought the troupe to London. In 1922 Chauve-Souris made its first tour to

651-464: A breakthrough when he reconfigured the control electrode, moving it from outside the tube envelope to a position inside the tube between the filament and the plate . He called the intermediate electrode a grid , reportedly due to its similarity to the "gridiron" lines on American football playing fields. Experiments conducted with his assistant, John V. L. Hogan , convinced him that he had discovered an important new radio detector. He quickly prepared

744-458: A delay of ten months, in July 1913 AT&T, through a third party who disguised his link to the telephone company, purchased the wire rights to seven Audion patents for $ 50,000. De Forest had hoped for a higher payment, but was again in bad financial shape and was unable to bargain for more. In 1915, AT&T used the innovation to conduct the first transcontinental telephone calls, in conjunction with

837-555: A famous—and rich—inventor, and perpetually short of funds, he sought to interest companies with a series of devices and puzzles he created, and expectantly submitted essays in prize competitions, all with little success. After completing his undergraduate studies, in September 1896 de Forest began three years of postgraduate work. However, his electrical experiments had a tendency to blow fuses, causing building-wide blackouts. Even after being warned to be more careful, he managed to douse

930-527: A high-powered transmitter that was used primarily to drown out the other two.) Despite this setback, de Forest remained in the New York City area, in order to raise interest in his ideas and capital to replace the small working companies that had been formed to promote his work thus far. In January 1902 he met a promoter, Abraham White, who would become de Forest's main sponsor for the next five years. White envisioned bold and expansive plans that enticed

1023-565: A lab room on December 31, 1906, and by February was making experimental transmissions, including music produced by Thaddeus Cahill 's telharmonium , that were heard throughout the city. On July 18, 1907, de Forest made the first ship-to-shore transmissions by radiotelephone—race reports for the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association (I-LYA) Regatta held on Lake Erie —which were sent from the steam yacht Thelma to his assistant, Frank E. Butler, located in

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1116-478: A microphone photographically onto film, using parallel lines of variable shades of gray, an approach known as "variable density", in contrast to "variable area" systems used by processes such as RCA Photophone . When the movie film was projected, the recorded information was converted back into sound, in synchronization with the picture. From October 1921 to September 1922, de Forest lived in Berlin , Germany, meeting

1209-415: A mix of Russian, French, and English language and slang coupled with much gesticulation. However, in private his English was better than that of his stage persona. His company toured Europe and South Africa, appearing in major capital cities. He was married to Helena Komisarjevska, a member of one of his theatrical companies. In 1927 he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. In 1934 Balieff created

1302-479: A monopoly for all wireless communication in the United States, had also set up a powerful transmitter. None of these companies had effective tuning for their transmitters, so only one could transmit at a time without causing mutual interference. Although an attempt was made to have the three systems avoid conflicts by rotating operations over five-minute intervals, the agreement broke down, resulting in chaos as

1395-657: A network of radiotelephone stations along the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes, for coastal ship navigation. However, the installations proved unprofitable, and by 1911 the parent company and its subsidiaries were on the brink of bankruptcy. De Forest also used the arc-transmitter to conduct some of the earliest experimental entertainment radio broadcasts. Eugenia Farrar sang "I Love You Truly" in an unpublicized test from his laboratory in 1907, and in 1908, on de Forest's Paris honeymoon, musical selections were broadcast from

1488-481: A new Chauve-Souris production, which proved to be his last theatrical venture. Several recordings were made of Sauve-Chouris numbers. Part of the La Chauve-Souris revue was recorded by British Columbia Graphophone Company , AX 2717, 2719 - 9220, speed 80 rpm, under the title Chauves Souris : "Was Macht Der Maier Am Himalaya?" ("Where Is My Meyer?") ( Fritz Rotter , Otto Stransky , Anton Profes )

1581-720: A new Chauve-Souris production, which proved to be his last theatrical venture. The fall of that year marked his final stage appearance: Continental Varieties , a revue at the Helen Hayes Theatre , which featured Lucienne Boyer . He also appeared in the Ben Hecht - Charles MacArthur film, Once in a Blue Moon (1935). Balieff died of a kidney ailment on 3 September 1936, aged 63, at the Park West Hospital on West 76th Street in Manhattan. His funeral

1674-641: A nightly schedule featuring the Columbia recordings. These broadcasts were also used to advertise "the products of the DeForest Radio Co., mostly the radio parts, with all the zeal of our catalogue and price list", until comments by Western Electric engineers caused de Forest enough embarrassment to make him decide to eliminate the direct advertising. The station also made the first audio broadcast of election reports—in earlier elections, stations that broadcast results had used Morse code—providing news of

1767-446: A paper on an arc transmitter , which unlike the discontinuous pulses produced by spark transmitters, created steady "continuous wave" signals that could be used for amplitude modulated (AM) audio transmissions. Although Poulsen had patented his invention, de Forest claimed to have come up with a variation that allowed him to avoid infringing on Poulsen's work. Using his "sparkless" arc transmitter, de Forest first transmitted audio across

1860-433: A patent application which was filed on January 29, 1907, and received U.S. patent 879,532 on February 18, 1908. Because the grid-control Audion was the only configuration to become commercially valuable, the earlier versions were forgotten, and the term Audion later became synonymous with just the grid type. It later also became known as the triode. The grid Audion was the first device to amplify, albeit only slightly,

1953-511: A policy that retailers had to require their customers to return a worn-out tube before they could get a replacement. This style of business encouraged others to make and sell unlicensed vacuum tubes which did not impose a return policy. One of the boldest was Audio Tron Sales Company founded in 1915 by Elmer T. Cunningham of San Francisco, whose Audio Tron tubes cost less but were of equal or higher quality. The de Forest company sued Audio Tron Sales, eventually settling out of court. In April 1917,

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2046-651: A popular segment from the stage production performed by Nikita Balieff and La Chauve-Souris , in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on film process. The short film premiered 15 April 1923 as part of a program of 18 Phonofilms at the Rivoli Theater in New York City, and then in England, Japan, and Australia. The film, shown under the title Parade of the Wooden Soldiers with two-color Technicolor sequences,

2139-484: A research job at the Federal Telegraph Company , which produced long-range radiotelegraph systems using high-powered Poulsen arcs . One of de Forest's areas of research at Federal Telegraph was improving the reception of signals, and he came up with the idea of strengthening the audio frequency output from a grid Audion by feeding it into a second tube for additional amplification. He called this

2232-583: A self-restoring detector that could receive transmissions by ear, thus making it capable of receiving weaker signals and also allowing faster Morse code sending speeds. After making unsuccessful inquiries about employment with Nikola Tesla and Marconi, de Forest struck out on his own. His first job after leaving Yale was with the Western Electric Company 's telephone lab in Chicago, Illinois. While there he developed his first receiver, which

2325-470: A spark-gap transmitter, he briefly thought that the flickering of a nearby gas flame might be in response to electromagnetic pulses. With further tests he soon determined that the cause of the flame fluctuations was due to air pressure changes produced by the loud sound of the spark. Still, he was intrigued by the idea that, properly configured, it might be possible to use a flame or something similar to detect radio signals. After determining that an open flame

2418-562: A tumultuous career – he boasted that he made, then lost, four fortunes. He was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried (and acquitted) for mail fraud . Despite this, he was recognised for his pioneering work with the 1922 IEEE Medal of Honor , the 1923 Franklin Institute Elliott Cresson Medal and the 1946 American Institute of Electrical Engineers Edison Medal . Lee de Forest

2511-717: A well-known cabaret in Vienna called Fledermaus . The Bat enjoyed much success and popularity in Moscow, until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Balieff then went into exile in western Europe, and began presenting vaudeville shows there with other Russian émigrés . La Chauve-Souris opened in Paris in December 1920. The spectacle was noticed by the British theatrical producer Charles B. Cochran , who brought Balieff and his troupe and show to London. In 1922 La Chauve-Souris made its first tour to America, through an arrangement with

2604-637: Is believed to have been born in Erzerum, Ottoman Empire in 1873, he left for Moscow in 1906 and took a job at the Moscow Art Theater under Konstantin Stanislavski . After years of only non-speaking roles, and with a desire to perform comedy rather than drama, Balieff co-created (with Nikolai Tarasov ) his own theater group in a basement near the Moscow Art Theater. He named the troupe La Chauve-Souris (French for " bat ") after

2697-642: Is capable of being developed into a really efficient detector, but in its present forms is quite unreliable and entirely too complex to be properly handled by the usual wireless operator." In May 1910, the Radio Telephone Company and its subsidiaries were reorganized as the North American Wireless Corporation, but financial difficulties meant that the company's activities had nearly come to a halt. De Forest moved to San Francisco, California, and in early 1911 took

2790-805: Is now in the Maurice Zouary collection of the Library of Congress . La Chauve-Souris inspired a parody called No Sirree! (subtitled "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin"), written and performed by Robert Benchley and other members of the Algonquin Round Table for one night only in April 1922. No Sirree! had its genesis at the studio of Neysa McMein , which served as something of

2883-598: The Western Electrician in Chicago. With radio research his main priority, de Forest next took a night teaching position at the Lewis Institute , which freed him to conduct experiments at the Armour Institute . By 1900, using a spark-coil transmitter and his responder receiver, de Forest expanded his transmitting range to about seven kilometers (four miles). Professor Clarence Freeman of

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2976-667: The Associated Press , which he had successfully done for the 1899 contest. De Forest contracted to do the same for the smaller Publishers' Press Association. The race effort turned out to be an almost total failure. The Freeman transmitter broke down—in a fit of rage, de Forest threw it overboard—and had to be replaced by an ordinary spark coil. Even worse, the American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Company , which claimed its ownership of Amos Dolbear 's 1886 patent for wireless communication meant it held

3069-532: The Parker Building in New York City. The Radio Telephone Company was incorporated in order to promote his inventions, with James Dunlop Smith, a former American DeForest salesman, as president, and de Forest the vice president (De Forest preferred the term radio , which up to now had been primarily used in Europe, over wireless ). At the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Valdemar Poulsen had presented

3162-437: The regenerative circuit , and on October 6, 1914 U.S. patent 1,113,149 was issued for his discovery. U.S. patent law included a provision for challenging grants if another inventor could prove prior discovery. With an eye to increasing the value of the patent portfolio that would be sold to Western Electric in 1917, beginning in 1915 de Forest filed a series of patent applications that largely copied Armstrong's claims, in

3255-433: The "feedback circuit" and, by de Forest, as the "ultra-audion"). Beginning in 1913 Armstrong prepared papers and gave demonstrations that comprehensively documented how to employ three-element vacuum tubes in circuits that amplified signals to stronger levels than previously thought possible, and that could also generate high-power oscillations usable for radio transmission. In late 1913 Armstrong applied for patents covering

3348-461: The "goo anti-coherer") proved to be too crude to be commercialized, and de Forest struggled to develop a non-infringing device for receiving radio signals. In 1903, Reginald Fessenden demonstrated an electrolytic detector, and de Forest developed a variation, which he called the "spade detector", claiming it did not infringe on Fessenden's patents. Fessenden, and the U.S. courts, did not agree, and court injunctions enjoined American De Forest from using

3441-613: The American Missionary Association's Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama , a school "open to all of either sex, without regard to sect, race, or color", and which educated primarily African-Americans. Many of the local white citizens resented the school and its mission, and Lee spent most of his youth in Talladega isolated from the white community, with several close friends among the black children of

3534-537: The Armour Institute became interested in de Forest's work and developed a new type of spark transmitter. De Forest soon felt that Smythe and Freeman were holding him back, so in the fall of 1901 he made the bold decision to go to New York to compete directly with Marconi in transmitting race results for the International Yacht races. Marconi had already made arrangements to provide reports for

3627-687: The Broadway season, and where many well-known stage actors' caricatures hang. The signed drawing is now housed in the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts . Lee DeForest 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

3720-545: The Cambridge Theatre Orchestra conducted by Archangelsky. The other side of the disc was an 'air populaire' entitled "La Fille du Rémouleur," sung by the company in French under Balieff's direction, with Archangelsky conducting the same orchestra. The recording was made on 6 January 1933. Lee DeForest filmed Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (to the music Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten by Leon Jessel ),

3813-584: The Curse of an Akins Heart"; "The Greasy Hag, an O'Neill Play in One Act" with Kaufman, Connelly and Woollcott; and "Mr. Whim Passes By - An A. A. Milne Play." Nikita Balieff Nikita Fyodorovich Balieff (c. 1873 – September 3, 1936, born Mkrtich Balyan ) was a Russian Armenian vaudevillian , stage performer, writer, impresario , and director. He is best known as the creator and master of ceremonies of La Chauve-Souris theater group. Balieff

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3906-466: The District of Columbia district court. On May 8, 1924, that court concluded that the evidence, beginning with the 1912 notebook entry, was sufficient to establish de Forest's priority. Now on the defensive, Armstrong's side tried to overturn the decision, but these efforts, which twice went before the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1928 and 1934, were unsuccessful. This judicial ruling meant that Lee de Forest

3999-543: The Eiffel Tower as a part of demonstrations of the arc-transmitter. In early 1909, in what may have been the first public speech by radio, de Forest's mother-in-law, Harriot Stanton Blatch , made a broadcast supporting women's suffrage. More ambitious demonstrations followed. A series of tests in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City were conducted to determine whether it

4092-478: The Fleming valve was merely a rectifier that converted alternating current to direct current. (For this reason, de Forest objected to his Audion being referred to as "a valve".) The U.S. courts were not convinced, and ruled that the grid Audion did in fact infringe on the Fleming valve patent, now held by Marconi . In contrast, Marconi admitted that the addition of the third electrode was a patentable improvement, and

4185-499: The Fox's Dock Pavilion on South Bass Island . De Forest also interested the U.S. Navy in his radiotelephone, which placed a rush order to have 26 arc sets installed for its Great White Fleet around-the-world voyage that began in late 1907. However, at the conclusion of the circumnavigation the sets were declared to be too unreliable to meet the Navy's needs and removed. The company set up

4278-464: The November 1916 Wilson-Hughes presidential election . The New York American installed a private wire and bulletins were sent out every hour. About 2,000 listeners heard The Star-Spangled Banner and other anthems, songs, and hymns. With the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, so 2XG was silenced for the duration of

4371-587: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. Radio Telephone Company officials had engaged in some of the same stock selling excesses that had taken place at American DeForest, and as part of the U.S. government's crackdown on stock fraud, in March 1912 de Forest, plus four other company officials, were arrested and charged with "use of the mails to defraud". Their trials took place in late 1913, and while three of

4464-474: The Tri-Ergon developers (German inventors Josef Engl (1893–1942), Hans Vogt (1890–1979), and Joseph Massolle (1889–1957)) and investigating other European sound film systems. In April 1922 he announced that he would soon have a workable sound-on-film system. On March 12, 1923, he demonstrated Phonofilm to the press; this was followed on April 12, 1923, by a private demonstration to electrical engineers at

4557-528: The U.S. Navy, located in Panama, Pensacola and Key West, Florida, Guantanamo, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It also installed shore stations along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes, and equipped shipboard stations. But the main focus was selling stock at ever more inflated prices, spurred by the construction of promotional inland stations. Most of these inland stations had no practical use and were abandoned once

4650-600: The US through an arrangement with the producer Morris Gest . Balieff and his company toured from Washington, D.C. to California for 65 consecutive weeks. Between 1922 and 1929, Balieff returned to America to tour six times, appearing on Broadway in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, and 1929, with one final show billed as New Chauve-Souris in 1931. His shows consisted of songs, dances, and sketches, most of which had been originally performed in Russia. One of his most popular acts, The Parade of

4743-587: The Wooden Soldiers , which used the Leon Jessel tune "Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten" ("The Parade of the Tin Soldiers"), referenced a story regarding Tsar Paul I . The legend claims the Tsar left his parade grounds without issuing a "halt" order to the marching soldiers. Without one, the soldiers marched to Siberia before being remembered and ordered back. The Balieff vaudeville version with its popular tune

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4836-639: The action of the oscillating and non-oscillating audion", but the organization's board refused to let him, stating that it "strongly affirms the original award". The practical effect of de Forest's victory was that his company was free to sell products that used regeneration, for during the controversy, which became more a personal feud than a business dispute, Armstrong tried to block the company from even being licensed to sell equipment under his patent. De Forest regularly responded to articles which he thought exaggerated Armstrong's contributions with animosity that continued even after Armstrong's 1954 suicide. Following

4929-679: The brewing Russo-Japanese War , and later that year a tower, with "DEFOREST" arrayed in lights, was erected on the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Missouri, where the company won a gold medal for its radiotelegraph demonstrations. (Marconi withdrew from the Exposition when he learned de Forest would be there). The company's most important early contract was the construction, in 1905–1906, of five high-powered radiotelegraph stations for

5022-487: The callsign 8MK , which later became broadcasting station WWJ . In 1921, de Forest ended most of his radio research in order to concentrate on developing an optical sound-on-film process called Phonofilm . In 1919 he filed the first patent for the new system, which improved upon earlier work by Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt and the German partnership Tri-Ergon . Phonofilm recorded the electrical waveforms produced by

5115-444: The company's remaining commercial radio patent rights were sold to AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary for $ 250,000. During World War I, the Radio Telephone Company prospered from sales of radio equipment to the military. However, it also became known for the poor quality of its vacuum tubes, especially compared to those produced by major industrial manufacturers such as General Electric and Western Electric. Beginning in 1912, there

5208-458: The court ruled that the lack of awareness and understanding on de Forest's part, in addition to the fact that he had made no immediate advances beyond his initial observation, made implausible his attempt to prevail as inventor. However, a second series of court cases, which were the result of the patent office interference proceeding, had a different outcome. The interference board had also sided with Armstrong, and de Forest appealed its decision to

5301-718: The defendants were found guilty, de Forest was acquitted. With the legal problems behind him, de Forest reorganized his company as the DeForest Radio Telephone Company, and established a laboratory at 1391 Sedgewick Avenue in the Highbridge section of the Bronx in New York City. The company's limited finances were boosted by the sale, in October 1914, of the commercial Audion patent rights for radio signalling to AT&T for $ 90,000, with de Forest retaining

5394-607: The device. Meanwhile, White set in motion a series of highly visible promotions for American DeForest: "Wireless Auto No.1" was positioned on Wall Street to "send stock quotes" using an unmuffled spark transmitter to loudly draw the attention of potential investors, in early 1904 two stations were established at Wei-hai-Wei on the Chinese mainland and aboard the Chinese steamer SS Haimun , which allowed war correspondent Captain Lionel James of The Times of London to report on

5487-495: The entertainment broadcasts he had suspended in 1910, now using the superior capabilities of vacuum-tube equipment. 2XG's debut program aired on October 26, 1916, as part of an arrangement with the Columbia Graphophone Company to promote its recordings, which included "announcing the title and 'Columbia Gramophone [ sic ] Company' with each playing". Beginning November 1, the "Highbridge Station" offered

5580-481: 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 . These made radio broadcasting and long distance telephone lines possible, and led to the development of talking motion pictures , among countless other applications. He had over 300 patents worldwide, but also

5673-578: The high vacuum allowed it to operate at telephone-line voltages. With these changes the Audion evolved into a modern electron-discharge vacuum tube, using electron flows rather than ions. (Dr. Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Corporation made similar findings, and both he and Arnold attempted to patent the "high vacuum" construction, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1931 that this modification could not be patented). After

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5766-458: The hopes of having the priority of the competing applications upheld by an interference hearing at the patent office. Based on a notebook entry recorded at the time, de Forest asserted that, while working on the cascade amplifier, he had stumbled on August 6, 1912, across the feedback principle, which was then used in the spring of 1913 to operate a low-powered transmitter for heterodyne reception of Federal Telegraph arc transmissions. However, there

5859-437: The idea was not yet technically feasible, and de Forest would not make any additional entertainment broadcasts until late 1916, when more capable vacuum-tube equipment became available. De Forest's most famous invention was the "grid Audion", which was the first successful three-element ( triode ) vacuum tube , and the first device which could amplify electrical signals. He traced its inspiration to 1900, when, experimenting with

5952-430: The inventor—however, he was also dishonest and much of the new enterprise would be built on wild exaggeration and stock fraud. To back de Forest's efforts, White incorporated the American DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company, with himself as the company's president, and de Forest the Scientific Director. The company claimed as its goal the development of "world-wide wireless". The original "responder" receiver (also known as

6045-418: The lights during an important lecture by Professor Charles S. Hastings , who responded by having de Forest expelled from Sheffield. With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, de Forest enrolled in the Connecticut Volunteer Militia Battery as a bugler, but the war ended and he was mustered out without ever leaving the state. He then completed his studies at Yale's Sloane Physics Laboratory, earning

6138-525: The local stock sales slowed. De Forest eventually came into conflict with his company's management. His main complaint was the limited support he got for conducting research, while company officials were upset with de Forest's inability to develop a practical receiver free of patent infringement. (This problem was finally resolved with the invention of the carborundum crystal detector by another company employee, General Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody ). On November 28, 1906, in exchange for $ 1000 (half of which

6231-540: The producer Morris Gest . La Chauve Souris performed on Broadway from February 1922 to June 1922 (153 performances) and January 1925 to March 1925 (61 performances) in productions produced by F. Ray Comstock and Morris Gest. Balieff and his company also toured from Washington, D.C. to California for 65 consecutive weeks. Between 1922 and 1929, Balieff returned to America to tour six times, appearing on Broadway in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, and 1929, with one final show billed as New Chauve-Souris in 1931. In 1927 Balieff

6324-434: The publication of Carl Dreher 's "E. H. Armstrong, the Hero as Inventor" in the August 1956 Harper's magazine, de Forest wrote the author, describing Armstrong as "exceedingly arrogant, brow beating, even brutal...", and defending the Supreme Court decision in his favor. In the summer of 1915, the company received an Experimental license for station 2XG , located at its Highbridge laboratory. In late 1916, de Forest renewed

6417-416: The rights for sales for "amateur and experimental use". In October 1915 AT&T conducted test radio transmissions from the Navy's station in Arlington, Virginia that were heard as far away as Paris and Hawaii. The Radio Telephone Company began selling "Oscillion" power tubes to amateurs, suitable for radio transmissions. The company wanted to keep a tight hold on the tube business, and originally maintained

6510-478: The simultaneous transmissions clashed with each other. De Forest ruefully noted that under these conditions the only successful "wireless" communication was done by visual semaphore "wig-wag" flags. (The 1903 International Yacht races would be a repeat of 1901—Marconi worked for the Associated Press, de Forest for the Publishers' Press Association, and the unaffiliated International Wireless Company (successor to 1901's American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph) operated

6603-513: The soldiers marched to Siberia before being remembered and ordered back. The Balieff vaudeville version with its popular tune was a mainstay in Chauve-Souris , and later became part of The Rockettes repertoire as well in their Radio City Christmas Spectacular . The Chauve-Souris "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" was also filmed, and premiered on April 15, 1923 at the Rivoli Theater. La Chauve-Souris also toured Europe and South Africa, appearing in major capital cities. In 1934 Balieff created

6696-469: The strength of received radio signals. However, to many observers it appeared that de Forest had done nothing more than add the grid electrode to an existing detector configuration, the Fleming valve , which also consisted of a filament and plate enclosed in an evacuated glass tube. De Forest passionately denied the similarly of the two devices, claiming his invention was a relay that amplified currents, while

6789-517: The town. De Forest prepared for college by attending Mount Hermon Boys' School in Gill, Massachusetts , for two years, beginning in 1891. In 1893, he enrolled in a three-year course of studies at Yale University 's Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, on a $ 300 per year scholarship that had been established for relatives of David de Forest. Convinced that he was destined to become

6882-447: The two sides agreed to license each other so that both could manufacture three-electrode tubes in the United States. (De Forest's European patents had lapsed because he did not have the funds needed to renew them). Because of its limited uses and the great variability in the quality of individual units, the grid Audion would be rarely used during the first half-decade after its invention. In 1908, John V. L. Hogan reported that "The Audion

6975-487: The war. The ban on civilian stations was lifted on October 1, 1919, and 2XG soon renewed operation, with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company now supplying the phonograph records. In early 1920, de Forest moved the station's transmitter from the Bronx to Manhattan, but did not have permission to do so, so district Radio Inspector Arthur Batcheller ordered the station off the air. De Forest's response

7068-632: Was a mainstay in Chauve-Souris, and later became part of The Rockettes repertoire as well. Wooden Soldiers was filmed in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, and premiered on 15 April 1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City, along with 18 other short films made by DeForest. This short film is located in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress . Balieff was known for his feigned lack of English on stage. His monologues and introductions were delivered in

7161-401: Was already making impressive progress in both Europe and the United States. One drawback of Marconi's approach was his use of a coherer as a receiver, which, while providing for permanent records, was also slow (after each received Morse code dot or dash, it had to be tapped to restore operation), insensitive, and not very reliable. De Forest was determined to devise a better system, including

7254-525: Was also strong evidence that de Forest was unaware of the full significance of this discovery, as shown by his lack of follow-up and continuing misunderstanding of the physics involved. In particular, it appeared that he was unaware of the potential for further development until he became familiar with Armstrong's research. De Forest was not alone in the interference determination—the patent office identified four competing claimants for its hearings, consisting of Armstrong, de Forest, General Electric's Langmuir, and

7347-730: Was based on findings by two German scientists, Drs. A. Neugschwender and Emil Aschkinass . Their original design consisted of a mirror in which a narrow, moistened slit had been cut through the silvered back. Attaching a battery and telephone receiver, they could hear sound changes in response to radio signal impulses. De Forest, along with Ed Smythe, a co-worker who provided financial and technical help, developed variations they called "responders". A series of short-term positions followed, including three unproductive months with Professor Warren S. Johnson 's American Wireless Telegraph Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and work as an assistant editor of

7440-408: Was better than that of his stage persona. One of La Chauve-Souris 's most popular acts, The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers , which used the delightful Leon Jessel tune " Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten " ("The Parade of the Tin Soldiers"), referenced a story regarding Tsar Paul I . The legend claims the Tsar left his parade grounds without issuing a "halt" order to the marching soldiers. Without one,

7533-493: Was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa , the son of Anna Margaret ( née Robbins) and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a direct descendant of Jessé de Forest , the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th century due to religious persecution. De Forest's father was a Congregational Church minister who hoped his son would also become a pastor. In 1879 the elder de Forest became president of

7626-573: Was claimed by an attorney) and the rights to some early Audion detector patents, de Forest turned in his stock and resigned from the company that bore his name. American DeForest was then reorganized as the United Wireless Telegraph Company , and would be the dominant U.S. radio communications firm, albeit propped up by massive stock fraud, until its bankruptcy in 1912. De Forest moved quickly to re-establish himself as an independent inventor, working in his own laboratory in

7719-434: Was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The shows consisted of songs, dances, and sketches, most of which had been originally performed in Russia. Balieff, as master of ceremonies for the show, was known for his feigned lack of English on stage. His monologues and introductions were delivered in a mix of Russian, French, and English language and slang coupled with much gesticulation. However, in private Balieff's English

7812-441: Was found that de Forest's "gassy" version of the Audion could not handle even the relatively low voltages used by telephone lines. (Owing to the way he constructed the tubes, de Forest's Audions would cease to operate with too high a vacuum.) However, careful research by Dr. Harold D. Arnold and his team at AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary determined that improving the tube's design would allow it to be more fully evacuated, and

7905-484: Was granted U.S. patent number 841387 on January 15, 1907. Subsequently, a third "control" electrode was added, originally as a surrounding metal cylinder or a wire coiled around the outside of the glass tube. None of these initial designs worked particularly well. De Forest gave a presentation of his work to date to the October 26, 1906, New York meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which

7998-745: Was held at the Russian Orthodox Church of Christ the Savior on Madison Avenue . Members of the Russian Opera Company sang and nearly 1,000 people attended the service, including members of the Russian nobility. Balieff is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, New York . His caricature was drawn by Alex Gard for the famed Sardi's Restaurant , where well-known performers often congregated during

8091-473: Was increased investigation of vacuum-tube capabilities, simultaneously by numerous inventors in multiple countries, who identified additional important uses for the device. These overlapping discoveries led to complicated legal disputes over priority, perhaps the most bitter being one in the United States between de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong over the discovery of regeneration (also known as

8184-607: Was now legally recognized in the United States as the inventor of regeneration. However, much of the engineering community continued to consider Armstrong to be the actual developer, with de Forest viewed as someone who skillfully used the patent system to get credit for an invention to which he had barely contributed. Following the 1934 Supreme Court decision, Armstrong attempted to return his Institute of Radio Engineers (present-day Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ) Medal of Honor, which had been awarded to him in 1917 "in recognition of his work and publications dealing with

8277-479: Was practical to broadcast opera performances live from the stage. Tosca was performed on January 12, 1910, and the next day's test included Italian tenor Enrico Caruso . On February 24, the Manhattan Opera Company's Mme. Mariette Mazarin sang "La Habanera" from Carmen and selections from the controversial "Elektra" over a transmitter located in de Forest's lab. But these tests showed that

8370-535: Was recorded electrically in German in March 1928 by the Manhattan Male Quartet for Edison , issued as diamond disc 57027-R. The duet for Lisa and Pauline in Tchaikovsky's "Pique Dame" ("The Queen of Spades") Act 1, Scene 2, was recorded on a French 78rpm disc Col. DFX 134, also UK Col. DX 440. It was sung by Eugenie Safanova and Finaida Erchova , two members of "La Chauve-Souris," with

8463-504: Was reprinted in two parts in late 1907 in the Scientific American Supplement . He was insistent that a small amount of residual gas was necessary for the tubes to operate properly. However, he also admitted that "I have arrived as yet at no completely satisfactory theory as to the exact means by which the high-frequency oscillations affect so markedly the behavior of an ionized gas." In late 1906, de Forest made

8556-595: Was to return to San Francisco in March, taking 2XG's transmitter with him. A new station, 6XC , was established as "The California Theater station", which de Forest later stated was the "first radio-telephone station devoted solely" to broadcasting to the public. Later that year a de Forest associate, Clarence "C.S." Thompson, established Radio News & Music, Inc., in order to lease de Forest radio transmitters to newspapers interested in setting up their own broadcasting stations. In August 1920, The Detroit News began operation of "The Detroit News Radiophone", initially with

8649-431: Was too susceptible to ambient air currents, de Forest investigated whether ionized gases, heated and enclosed in a partially evacuated glass tube, could be used instead. In 1905 to 1906 he developed various configurations of glass-tube devices, which he gave the general name of "Audions". The first Audions had only two electrodes , and on October 25, 1906, de Forest filed a patent for the diode vacuum tube detector , that

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