Electronics

[unrealdave]

Hi Guys

Would you say that the electronic era started with the development of the electromagnet or the thermionic valve?

Cheers

[Terry]

Interesting question, Dave.

I would say well before the thermionic valve.

The electromagnet is more electrical engineering than electronics but possibly the start came when someone adapted it as a Morse sounder and then turned it into a buzzer which, in turn, became the basis of the spark transmitter.

It will be interesting to see other people's ideas on the subject.

[ppppenguin]

Using online etymology resources I found: The word "electronic" in the sense of pertaining to electrons is from c1901. "Electronics" in the modern sense is from c1910.

[peter scott]

I would agree with Terry. Electronics really starts with applications consciously using electrons.

Peter

[Craig]

J J Thompson discovered the electron in 1897, so the term electronics has to post date that.

[unrealdave]

Why?  They had been around before that.

[Crackle]

It is my view that electronics covers circuits that have active components, e.g. transistors and valves.
Other more passive circuits are merely electrical. e.g. Household wiring and maybe simple telegraph signalling.

Mike

[reset]

Hi Guys

Would you say that the electronic era started with the development of the electromagnet or the thermionic valve?

Cheers

You ask a hard question.



A lot of discoveries are logged in as a comment in a lab manual by the founder and later “discovered” by some one who can find a use for it so the question may be who first found a use for the idea or who discovered it? Faraday invented a motor and generator around 1850. Edison made a light bulb which would turn black after a after a few hours. He tried putting a plate in it to draw the carbon away from the glass (actually he was building on an earlier source). It did draw a current and he documented the Edison effect but had no practical use for it since the lamp still turned black. In 1896 Tesla built a poly phase generator system at Niagra. The generator was used to produce power for transmitters used with coherers for the early radio telegraphy. Marconi's radio system was in use for 10 years and DeForest building of Edison's discovery (based on earlier works) invented the triode tube which could be used to amplify thus advancing the usability of the radio system.


A lot of people equate electronics with radio. The radio and television industry was the driving force behind the new developments but we had radio 10 years before the DeForest triode so I am back where we started. Without a signal to amplify the triode would have been a useless.


Gee I didn't put Bell and his telephone in the mix. Without the telephone receiver we wouldn't have a way to hear the signal DeForest is amplifying?


Hummm? Without a battery none of these thing would have been discovered so I guess it goes back to the guy who put two dissimilar metals on a frog's leg and made it jump! Which in turn lead to the Voltaic pile.

[Andy M0FYA]

It doesn't help to answer your question, but when did the word 'electronics' come into common use? My interest is in WW2-era military equipment, and it certainly wasn't in common use in the documentation relating to British equipment. I think it was used more in the US, and spread into the UK post-war.
Andy

[unrealdave]

Thanks for your input guys.

To re-word my question maybe this is better: _

‘What could be seen as the first bit of kit that the use of enabled the field of electronics to be differentiated from the field of electrics?’

Or

‘When did electronics branch out as a separate arm of electrics?’

Mike – I see what you are saying but I thought electrical circuits just use simple resistance such as a lighting circuit, or a washing machine heater (not the electronics controlling it), or an electric heater.
Transistors and Valves amplify – but so can an electromagnet in a circuit using a relay? Electromagnets enabled electronic communication – as Terry says Morse code networks amongst others.

Jeff – Come on matey, could you give me a simple one or the other opinion? Please?

Reset – interesting but what is your opinion on my question (apart for we could go back further with everything)