In 1913 the U.S. Government indicted a scientist on charges that could have sent him to prison for a decade. An angry prosecutor branded the defendant a charlatan and accused him of defrauding the public by selling stock to manufacture a worthless device. Fortunately for the future of electronics—and for the dignity of justice—the defendant was found innocent. He was the brilliant inventor, Lee De Forest, and the so-called worthless device was a triode vacuum tube called an Audion, the most valuable discovery in the history of electronics.

From his father, a minister and college president, young De Forest acquired a strength of character and purpose that helped him work his way through Yale and left him undismayed by early failures. His first successful invention was a wireless receiver far superior to Marconi's. Soon he devised a revolutionary transmitter, and at thirty was manufacturing his own equipment. Then his success was wiped out by an unscrupulous financier. De Forest started all over again, perfected his priceless Audion tube and paved the way for radio broadcasting in America.

Time and again it was only De Forest's faith that helped him surmount the obstacles and indignities thrust upon him by others. Greedy men and powerful corporations took his money, infringed on his patents and secured rights to his inventions for only a fraction of their true worth. Yet nothing crushed his spirit or blurred his scientific vision. He gave the world radio and long distance telephone. He perfected talking motion pictures long before the movie industry saw the value of sound. Radar, television, guided missiles and modern computing machines were all made possible by his work.

This biography of Lee De Forest is full of memorable scenes that illuminate the mind and heart of this gifted man. His story is as exciting as his ideas and achievements.

From the dust jacket