The history of the creation of a three-electrode tube with a low gas content (audion) by the American inventor Lee de Forest is investigated. The flame detectors, which became the prototype of two-electrode and three-electrode audions with low-pressure gas, are considered in detail. Attention is paid to the dispute between J. A. Fleming and Lee de Forest about the priority in the invention of the vacuum diode. The choice of a scientific path in the design of an audion (triode) with a control electrode is shown.
Lee de Forest, J. A. Fleming, flame detector, two-electrode audion, three-electrode audion, triode
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