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[–] 80 points 2 years ago (9 children)

1905 is a milestone of modern physics, because it's when Special Relativity came out.

That's older than the transistor, which was commercialized in 1951. But it's also older than the vacuum tube triode, which was invented in 1906 or 1908.

In 1905, there were no amplifiers of any kind (though there were relay switches). There was almost no radio. The triode was a necessary invention for almost all of analog electronics.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Meh, you could do signal amplification via transformers and tuned resonators.

    It sucked, but it was possible.

    That's how we had telephones before we had tubes.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Transformers can increase voltage while decreasing current, or increase current while decreasing voltage, but can't increase a signal's power.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)