Nothingness might not sound very useful. In fact, the opposite is the case because nothingness – in the form of a vacuum – has played a major role in the history of electronics. Until the invention of ...

Vacuum tubeIs an electronic component that performs signal amplification, detection, rectification, etc. with an electrode enclosed in a glass or metal tube whose inside is evacuated. Until a ...

In the 1800s, when pneumatic tubes shot telegrams and small items all around buildings and sometimes small cities, the future of mass transit seemed clear: we'd be firing people around through these ...

The transistor revolutionized the world and made the abundant computing we now rely on a possibility, but before the transistor, there was the vacuum tube. Large, hot, power hungry, and prone to ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Brad Moon covers audio gear, Apple products and consumer tech. This article is more than 7 years old. Analog audio is having a ...