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Equipment file · Gas-filled amplifying valve

Lieben-Reisz valve

Robert von Lieben · 1906–1913

Evidence status · documented

Identity and core specifications are documented; some historical fields remain unavailable.

Robert von Lieben, with Eugen Reisz and Sigmund Strauss, developed a mercury-vapour valve with a control grid intended to amplify telephone signals; his German patent 179,807 was published on 18 November 1906. The 'LRS relay' was demonstrated for telephone amplification by 1911–13 and then manufactured by the Lieben Konsortium.

Introduced
1906–1913
Category
Gas-filled amplifying valve
Intended use
Amplifying telephone signals
Production
Manufactured from 1913 by the Lieben Konsortium (Siemens, AEG, Telefunken) until about 1920

Equipment photographs · 2

LRS Valve

1 / 2 · LRS Valve

LRS Valve·Drahtlos·CC BY-SA 4.0

Why it mattered

  1. 01

    It was one of the first valves designed specifically to amplify speech, developed in parallel with the Audion.

    Pictured in this passage
    Audion tubeDe Forest Wireless Three-electrode AudionPaul Thompson · Public domain
  2. 02

    It was used in Alexander Meissner's 1913 radiotelephone test from Berlin to Nauen.

Engineering record

Operating principle
Mercury-vapour triode with a control grid between cathode and anode, aimed at telephone amplification[1]

Original pricing

No reliable period price located

2026 equivalent

Not calculated without a reliable original price.

Public price evidence was not sufficient to publish a defensible original figure.

Use in the field

Used in Alexander Meissner's 1913 radiotelephone test over 36 km from Berlin to Nauen[2]

Manuals & original documents

No authoritative manual or original document has been located for this profile.

Sources

  1. 1On the Development of the Lieben Vacuum Tube (LRS-Relais)Franz Pichler, University of Linz · technical paper
  2. 2Lieben-Reisz Relay valveScience Museum Group Collection · archive · 1913

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