Capsule Challenges Vacuum Tube (1948)

Fun fact: Before any commercial production of transistors started, advanced hobbyists and amateur radio operators who saw this groundbreaking device from the news already started experimenting. Making your own point-contact transistor [0] was a classic DIY project in 1949 - you break the glass and extract the silicon from an 1N34 germanium diode, then form the collector and emitter. In recent years, Jeri Ellsworth repeated this experiment with a video tutorial [1].

[0] https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Craft/1940s/Radi... (see page 38)

[1] https://hackaday.com/2010/11/05/making-point-contact-transis...

I was taught electronics in the 70s by a elderly professor who was very familiar with tubes from his earlier life. He sometimes called parts of transistors by analogous names for tubes (or "valves", which I think would have been his name for them).

Everyone adored that man, and not just for his brilliance. He was immensely patient and kind. I think he loved teaching Physics as much as he loved Physics. He did a lot of mathematical things differently than the younger professors, and it was more intuitive, somehow. All these years later, I remember several pleasant conversations with Dr Crawford, and the impact they had on my life.

For about 15 years "transistor" was one of the go-to words for anything technology. Although it looks bulky and clumsy today, Iron Man's first armor, in 1963, was said to be as light and powerful as it was because of transistors. http://www.ironmanarmory.com/Gray_Armor.html Subsequent armors also used the wonder technology until, I think, 1968.

Was recently reading about the development of proximity fuses for anti-aircraft shells during WWII. The idea that they did that without solid state electronics is insane to me. They had tubes which could withstand the 20000 G's of being fired from an ant-aircraft gun (along with the spinning of the shell due to rifling) Transistors would have really simplified that.

The illustration of gate as weak men allowing source of strong men to drain is worth a look.

This article appears to center on germanium, but the first procedures to prepare high-purity silicon were developed by Carl Marcus Olson of DuPont for WW2 radar components.

It was nearly two decades after the end of the war that transistor demand would need this procedure again.

http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/olson/article.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Marcus_Olson

Wow, this is a surprisingly approachable explanation of how a transistor works!

Also in next article they discuss "walkie-hearies". AAA! It's like "walkie-talkie" but for hearing. Obviously!

OC72 transistor is almost as pricey as it was 60 years ago. I found one for 12.45€. I added loudspeaker to my crystal receiver 1965. Could be better long-term investment than some shitcoin.