Take a look through the chronological history of how Vacuum Electronics came to fruition.
Year
Event
Year
Event
1884
Edwin Houston. discussed the Edison effect, a curious trickle of current through the lamps that was to become the physical basis of electron tubes.
1905
John Ambrose Fleming employed this effect in his “oscillation valve,” which served as a detector of wireless transmissions.
1906
Lee De Forest invented the Triode vacuum tube amplifier.
1912
In America, Lee de Forest and Reginald Fessenden used the triode vacuum tube amplifier to function as an amplifier in radio.
1916
In America, Lee de Forest and Reginald Fessenden used the triode vacuum tube amplifier to function as an amplifier in radio.
1920
The term “electronics” emerged to defined the new science field.
1920
H. Barkhausen and K. Kurz invented the Retarded Field Tube, the first transit time tube.
1921
A. Hull invented the Magnetron.
1923
The “double-grid” Philips type Q.
1926
S. G. Holst and B. Tellegen invented the Pentode.
1935
Magnetrons with multisegment anodes (which, in fact, appear as closed-loop slow-wave structures) were proposed by K. Posthumus.
1937
Sigurd and Russell Varian working at Stanford University invented the Klystron
1938
The first Conference on Electron Tubes, held at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York.
1938
N. F. Alekseev and D. D. Malairov developed a prototype of the modern cavity magnetron with a copper anode and hole-slot resonators.
1940
Henry Boot and John Randall invented the Resonant Cavity Magnetron.
1940
The MIT Radiation Laboratory developed comprehensive radar systems with the cavity magnetron as the core element.
1943
Rudolf Kompfner invented the Traveling-Wave Tube, at Birmingham in 1943.
1943
Charles Litton patented Multistage Depressed-Collector (MSDC).
1947
John Pierce developed a working theory of TWT operation, based on the interaction between an electron beam and slower electromagnetic waves traveling within the tube.
1950
Undulator production of radiation by H. Motz.
1952
BWO was invented by R. Kompfner.
1952
Epsztein invented a Backward-Wave Oscillator of M-type, the carcinotron.
1953
CFAs were invented by Brown under the name platinotron.
1954
Maser invented by J.P. Gordon.
1954
Invention of Gyrotron by M. Petelin at Nizhny Novograd
1957
Invention of the Ubitron/FEL by R.M. Phillips
1959
Theory for Gyroton from R. Q. Twiss and J. Schneider.
1960
Traveling-wave tubes for satellite communications first used in Echo and Telstar satellites.
1964
Nizhny Novgorod invented the Gyrotrons.
1967
Girocon, that introduced the working principle of the Magnicon, invented by G.I. Budker.
1969
Orotron invented by Rusin and Bogomolov.
1977
Flyagin, Gaponov, Petelin and Yulpatov invented the modern Gyrotrons.