Empire of the Air is a Fine Book

[Mike Butts]

I just finished reading "Empire of the Air" by Lewis. It's a Very Fine Read.
The book is built around the tightly intertwined lives of three men: Lee
DeForest, discoverer of the triode, seemingly a clumsy but very persistent hack.
Edwin Armstrong, the brilliant engineer who practically invented electronics: he
was first to understand the triode, invented the oscillator, the regen,
super-regen and superhet receivers, and FM. (Did you realize that the top minds
in EE "proved" in the 1920's that FM was no good? It just cleared the field for
Armstrong.) David Sarnoff, who conceived of modern broadcasting and ran RCA for
fifty years. Did he drive Armstrong to his tragic death in 1954?

This is a very well written book that will excite any who love radio. It's a
story of the battle and transition between the independent inventor-capitalist
and the modern technical corporation. I can't wait for the PBS special tomorrow
night.
--
Mike Butts, Research Engineer 503-685-1302(fax:7985)
mike_...@mentorg.com KC7IT ...!uunet!mntgfx!mike_butts
Mentor Graphics Corporation, 8005 SW Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070
Any opinions are my own, and aren't necessarily shared by Mentor Graphics Corp.

[Brent Jones]

In article <1992Jan28....@PDX.MENTORG.COM> mbu...@mentorg.com (Mike Butts) writes:
Regarding _Empire_of_the_Air_

>This is a very well written book that will excite any who love radio.

Another good book out now is WLT, a Radio Romance, by Garrison Keillor.
It will also tickle anyone who was either involved in the early days of
radio broadcasting, likes listening to radio, or just likes
Garrison Keillor. I don't thinks it's available in paper back yet, but
it can be found for $13 at Clown Books.

Brent

[du...@cpdvax.csc.ti.com]

One of the local PBS stations broadcast a program last night that was based
on the book. It was a very fine program. I'm glad I remembered to record it.

Dube Todd <Du...@cpdvax.csc.ti.com"
Dube Todd <Du...@cpdvax.csc.ti.com"