Ambrose Fleming Facts & Quotes

Interesting facts and quotes or quotations from the life of Professor Sir Ambrose Fleming.


John Ambrose Fleming Biography Includes:

Sir John Ambrose Fleming     Books & publications     Facts & quotes    


In his day, Ambrose Fleming was a famous individual having helped provide the technology to enable Marconi's first transatlantic radio communications link to be established as well as developing the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube. Arguably this could be thought of as the beginning of electronics as we know it today.

In addition to this, while Fleming was an exceedingly clever and intelligent man, he was also something of an eccentric, and this means there are various facts and quotes that are of interest.

Various Fleming facts and Fleming quotes are detailed below.


John Ambrose Fleming the inventor of the diode valve

John Ambrose Fleming facts

A summary of some of the chief facts about John Ambrose Fleming:

Key John Ambrose Fleming Facts
Fact Details
Birth date 29 November 1849
Birth place Lancaster
Father Rev James Fleming, a Congregational minister
Death 18 April 1945
Higher Education University College London and Cambridge
First employment At a shipbuilder in Dublin and later in the London Stock Exchange to gain funds to further his studies.
Major discoveries Diode oscillation valve, but also contributed significantly to the understanding of electrical machines and electrical measurements
Also known for Fleming's left hand motor rule.
First wife Clara Ripley - married in 1877 but died in 1917.
Second wife Olive Franks married 1933
Children None
Awards and honours Knighted in 1929
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society 1892
Hughes Medal 1910
Duddell Medal of the Physical Society
Faraday Medallist of Institution of Electrical Engineers 1928
Institute of Radio Engineers' Gold Medal in 1933
Major books published Fleming published many books during the course of his career. Some of the most important were:
    The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy (1906)
    The Propagation of Electric Currents in Telephone and Telegraph Conductors (1911)
    Fifty Years of Electricity (1921)

John Ambrose Fleming quotes

There are a number of John Ambrose Fleming quotes that have been captured and make interesting reading;

  • The theory of evolution is totally inadequate to explain the origin and manifestation of the inorganic world.

More Famous Scientists in Electronics and Radio:
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