The prosperity and decay of vacuum tubes and it's current status

진공관의 흥망성쇠와 최근의 동향

Vacuum tubes are electron tubes in which the motion of electrons are utilized. There are many kinds of vacuum tubes, e.g. diode tubes, triode tubes, pentodes. muti-tubes and etc. Generally accommodated in glass tube, its eletrodes can be seen easily from outside and it easy to understand. In 1884 Edison discovered a current flow in the vacuum tube. He could not, however, explain this phenomenon. This is called Edison effect. In 1904 Fleming developed the backup for the practical diode theory. The most important milestone in this early history of electronics came in 1906 when De Forest put a third electrode (a grid) into the above, and thus invented the triode tube. It is 90 years since the triode was invented by De Forest (as of 1996) and 100 years (centennial also as of 1996) since the specific electric change e/mo$_0$ ≒ 1.7589 ${\times}$ 1011 (C/kg) was confirmed by the English scientist Thomson in 1896. On the occasion of the 90th and 100th anniversary of these inventions and discovery, E would like to describe the rise and 1111 of the vacuum tubes and the current status of these tubes.