thermionic

Mechanical and electromechanical calculation devices had been around for a long time, but during World War II, U.S. defense officials sought to make computation much faster through the use of electronics—at the time, thermionic valves, or vacuum tubes.

The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. is to be congratulated on having established experimental wireless telephonic communication between Clifden … in Ireland, and Cape Grace, in Canada … The improvements which have been made in thermionic valves — for instance, the reduction of the air-pressure in the valve to the one-hundred-millionth of a millimetre of mercury — have increased their sensitivity enormously.

He followed up with a more detailed piece in Wireless World that October, envisioning “space-stations” that relied on thermionic valves serviced by an onboard crew supplied by atomic-powered rockets.

I have even made an attempt to understand the mystery that is called the Thermionic Valve.

Profs. Elster and Geitel of Germany�Early thermionic knowledge, extended by: Profs. Thomson, of Cambridge Univ. and Richardson, -. of Kings College, London?The essence of long-distance and wireless telephony.