Magnet Academy: John Ambrose Fleming

John Ambrose Fleming was an electronics pioneer who invented the oscillation valve, or vacuum tube, a device that would help make radios, televisions, telephones and even early electronic computers possible. A brilliant innovator, Fleming was particularly adept at solving technical problems, and at various times in his life he was closely acquainted with James Clerk Maxwell, Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi. He taught at University College, London, for many years and is often credited with devising the right-hand rule to help his students easily determine the directional relationships between a current, its magnetic field and electromotive force.