In the mean time, inventors in the 1920s introduced a fundamentally important set of modifications to the basic technology of phonograph recording. The technology of electronic amplification was originally developed for use in radio around 1906. Western Electric took Lee Deforest’s original “Audion” electron tube, which was intended to amplify electric signals, and greatly improved its performance. They used it to amplify telephone signals, creating the first coast-to-coast long distance lines. By the time of World War I, electron tubes were available from many different manufacturers, and a few years later they were being used in consumer radios.