Ambrose Fleming

It is probablethat most people and businesses who currently enjoy the ability to communicatewith friends, family, and colleagues around the world, give little thought tothe man who gave them the technology to be able achieve this modern miracle. That man, Professor John Ambrose Fleming, born during the reign of QueenVictoria, had the vision to develop an electronic device that has allowed us tocommunicate and receive limitless information from the comfort of ourarmchairs. This biographytracks Fleming s early life with a view to getting inside the mind of the manto discover his initial interests and various thought processes. It also bringsto light how Fleming s thermionic valve changed the strategy of warfare forever, introduced the technology to track aircraft and shipping and provided newways for the intelligence services to eavesdrop on our enemies. It is highlydoubtful that Fleming would have had the slightest idea that his technologywould have had such a profound effect on so many of these various areas when hefirst made his amazing discovery. In exploring thegreat man s life, Jim Lewis translates some of Fleming s experiments anddiscoveries into a form of non-Victorian language which will (hopefully) makesense to the lay person.