Discussion on “the audion; a new receiver for wireless telegraphy,” New York, October 26, 1906

Michael I. Pupin: I have had some experience in the constructing of detectors of electrical waves. I always call them detectors, because, as a friend of mine said the other day, there are so many various detectors now that one is tempted to believe that anything will do to detect an electrical wave. In the course of the development of the art of telephony, any schoolboy could make a telephone that would receive electrical impulses; so in wireless telegraph work, the number of detectors seems to be increasing indefinitely — good, bad, and indifferent detectors appearing indiscriminately. If there must be a new name for each new detector — a new name for everything that comes up in the course of the development of the electrical art — pretty soon the science of electrotechnics will be a maze of new names; and the learning of the names will be much more difficult than the learning of the facts connected with the art. For that reason I am opposed to new names. Although Dr. De Forest is very enthusiastic about the elegance of the name audion, I must say that I am not very much impressed by it. It is a mongrel. It is a Latin word with a Greek ending. If he had said acouion or acousticon it might have been better, but more difficult to pronounce.