Word: galena
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Marconi himself was having heavy weather of it, even with all the money and facilities he was able to command. But as is always the case, failure only served to spur on the real dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast. When the queer properties of a piece of galena ore, or a crystal of silicon, carborundum and several other minerals was discovered, feeble little signals were occasionally heard, and this sealed the fate of many young men. They were able to communicate with each other at rare intervals over short distances, and once in a while heard some of the large...
...impossible to buy some transmitting apparatus at all. Mr. Lee DeForest then brought out what he was pleased to term the "Audion" detector. It was a little incandescent lamp, with one or two fixings on it, and it was intended to take the place of the crystal of galena ore, or the bit of silicon. But it was found to be thousands of times more sensitive than the bit of galena or silicon. Immediately the amateur went mad over the improvement, and the DeForest company found themselves completely swamped with orders for detectors. Every expedient and subterfuge conceivable...