Use of Valves in Amplifiers

Until the invention of the transistor in 1947 the most efficient way of boosting a sound frequency was the thermionic valve which in its earliest form was created by John Ambrose Fleming while working for the Marconi Company in London in 1904 and named the diode, as it had two electrodes. The diode was designed to stop the backwards flow of electrons in a circuit and is still used today. In 1906 Lee De Forest invented the triode which had another electrode which altered the speed of the electrons moving from the anode to the cathode, this third electrode is ever so slightly negatively charged so it repels the electrons but because the electrons have already built momentum from the cathode to anode pull. The affect obtained is similar to a water pistol where the liquid is forced through the tube (the gaps in the grid) then shoots out the other side at a far greater speed then before. If the grids charge is to negative then the electrons are completely repelled so it breaks the circuit.

(1) This is a very simple amplifier circuit where the input voltage comes from the source of sound or example a guitar then the valve increases the signals

(1) http://openbookproject.net/electricCircuits/Semi/SEMI_13.html