Birthday of an electronics pioneer!
Today would be the 115th birthday of Harold Stephen Black, who invented the negative-feedback amplifier in 1927. The story goes that Mr. Black was taking the ferry from New Jersey to New York City (where Bell Labs was then located), and while on the boat he was struck by the idea to use negative feedback to linearize an amplifier stage.
The idea of negative feedback is a powerful one, because it provides a means to construct amplifiers with precise gain characteristics from parts with less than ideal specs. This makes it easier to build circuits with interchangeable, off-the-shelf parts. Gain can be adjusted using passive components, which are cheaper and easier to adjust.
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