Electrical Amplification

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Electrical Amplification

The creation and advancement of the electric amplifier began in 1906 with the invention of the triode, a form of electric amplification containing three active electrodes of which vacuum tubes are a variety, by De Forest (Leach, 1995). This invention became the primary focus of the amplification industry, resulting in the discovery of stable operating vacuum tubes by Langmuir of General Electric in 1913. Consequently, the Japanese established a vacuum tube laboratory in 1914 and created a prototype high-quality vacuum tube in 1916. With the beginning of radio broadcasts in Japan, in 1925, vacuum tube technology quickly spread to England and North America (Okamura, 1994). The electric pickup, a device that translates the disturbance in a magnet field into and electric signal, became practical enough for production in 1931, thus creating a need for electrical amplification. These first amplifiers, made by the company Electro String, had an output of approximately ten watts and utilized the same technologies as early radios, specifically vacuum tubes. The growing popularity of electrical amplification quickly caused demand for louder amplification. Leo Fender filled this need in 1949 with the first 50-watt amplifiers, which is still the standard wattage today. The late 1960s saw the next leap in amplifier technology in the invention of 100-watt amplifiers, which were loud enough for large arena-sized shows, by Jim Marshall (Hamm, 1972). In the 1970s, solid-state technology amplifiers replaced tube amplifier technology. These amplifiers were cheap and physically durable (Horowitz & Hill, 1989).

An Introduction to Electrical Amplification

At the most basic level, an electric amplifier is a device t...

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...gineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan website: http://bear.ces.cwru.edu/eecs_cad/tut_spice3_tube.html

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Okamura, S. (1994). Receiving tubes. In History of electron tubes (pp. 126-135). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=VHFyngmO95YC&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false

Vitz, P. C. (1972). Preferences for tones as a function of frequency (hertz) and intensity (decibels). Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 11, 84-88. doi:10.3758/

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