Joseph Henry invented the first electronic device, the relay. It is a remote control that can be controlled by electricity.
It enabled modern telegraphy and evolved into the repeater, thus the relay. A remote controlled switch was the first electronic device. However, it did not involve crystals or vacuum tubes.
His telegraph system included the first ever invented relay. It was introduced in 1844. It was used to repeat the signal from one circuit and retransmit it to another in long distance telegraph circuits.
Relays have been used extensively in telephone exchanges since then and in early computers for logical operations.