Problem: Lee de Forest was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of Anna Margaret (nee Robbins) and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a direct descendant of Jesse de Forest, the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th Century due to religious persecution. De Forest's father was a Congregational Church minister who hoped his son would also become a pastor. In 1879 the elder de Forest became president of the American Missionary Association's Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, a school "open to all of either sex, without regard to sect, race, or color", and which educated primarily African-Americans.

One of de Forest's areas of research at Federal Telegraph was improving the reception of signals, and he came up with the idea of strengthening the audio frequency output from a grid Audion by feeding it into a second tube for additional amplification. He called this a "cascade amplifier", which eventually consisted of chaining together up to three Audions.  At this time the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was researching ways to amplify telephone signals to provide better long-distance service, and it was recognized that de Forest's device had potential as a telephone line repeater. In mid-1912 an associate, John Stone Stone, contacted AT&T to arrange for de Forest to demonstrate his invention. It was found that de Forest's "gassy" version of the Audion could not handle even the relatively low voltages used by telephone lines. (Due to the way he constructed the tubes, de Forest's Audions would cease to operate with too high a vacuum.) However, careful research by Dr. Harold D. Arnold and his team at AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary determined that by improving the tube's design, it could be more fully evacuated, and the high vacuum allowed it to successfully operate at telephone line voltages. With these changes the Audion evolved into a modern electron-discharge vacuum tube, using electron flows rather than ions. (Dr. Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Corporation made similar findings, and both he and Arnold attempted to patent the "high vacuum" construction, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1931 that this modification could not be patented).  After a delay of ten months, in July 1913 AT&T, through a third party who disguised his link to the telephone company, purchased the wire rights to seven Audion patents for $50,000. De Forest had hoped for a higher payment, but was again in bad financial shape and was unable to bargain for more. In 1915, AT&T used the innovation to conduct the first transcontinental telephone calls, in conjunction with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco.

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Answer with quotes: AT&T, through a third party who disguised his link to the telephone company, purchased the wire rights to seven Audion patents


Problem: Titas (Portuguese pronunciation: [tSi'tas]) are a rock band from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Though they basically play pop/alternative rock, their music has touched a number of other styles throughout their 30-year career, such as new wave, punk rock, grunge, MPB and electronic music. They are one of the most successful rock bands in Brazil, having sold more than 6,3 million albums as of 2005 and having been covered by several well-known Brazilian artists and a couple of international singers. They were awarded a Latin Grammy in 2009 and have won the Imprensa Trophy for Best Band a record four times.

In November 1985, Tony Bellotto and Arnaldo Antunes were arrested for heroin traffic and transportation. It This considered by the band as the climax of their first crisis, started with the first two albums low sales. Also, the episode made so much of an impact in the band, the next album, Cabeca Dinossauro, released in June 1986, contained a lot of tracks criticizing the public institutions ("Estado Violencia" and "Policia"), as well as other "pillars" of the Brazilian society and indeed society in general ("Igreja" and "Familia"). The heavy and punk-influenced rhythms and the forceful lyrics, characteristic of the band in this phase, are fully represented in this album which is considered by the critics one of the best works of the group and one of the landmarks of the Brazilian rock.  Jesus Nao Tem Dentes No Pais Dos Banguelas, released at the end of 1987, continued in the same vein as the previous album in tracks like "Nome aos Bois", "Lugar Nenhum" and "Desordem", however adding samplers in tracks like "Coracoes e Mentes", "Todo Mundo quer Amor", "Comida" and "Diversao". After some international performances, the band recorded some of their hits in live Montreux Festival and released Go Back in 1988. The biggest hit to come out of Go Back was a live version of the song "Marvin" which is a re-invented version of "Patches" by Clarence Carter made famous by Elvis.  The producer Liminha (a former adjunct member of Os Mutantes) was always an important associate of the band since Cabeca Dinossauro, and this association arrived to its climax in O Blesq Blom, one of the most popular productions of the band by that time. Some of the prominence tracks: "Miseria", "Flores", "O Pulso" and "32 Dentes". One of the prominent features of this work was the special guest appearance of a couple of improvisors, called Mauro and Quiteria, discovered by the band in a beach in Recife.

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". After some international performances, the band recorded some of their hits in live Montreux Festival and released Go Back in 1988.