Lee de Forest
Lee de Forest was an American inventor, selfdescribed Father of Radio, and a pioneer in the development of soundonfilm recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous careerhe 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 for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the threeelement grid Audion, which, although he had only a limited understanding of how it worked, provided the foundation for the development of vacuum tube technology.
Lee de Forest was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of Anna Margaret and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a direct descendant of Jess de Forest, the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th Century due to religious persecution.
Source: Wikipedia