Making of the TR-1, first-sold transistor radio, 1954

For quite a period afterward, this defined the form factor. Many of us will have had the Japanese versions of this, in a leather or pleather wrapper, with the single earpiece on stiff twisted wire. You could get fined for using them without the earpiece on the beach, something I wish applied now to the knobheads who play music from their iPhones.

Shrinking the discrete component set down was a godsend. It took a while, but soon the largest element after the speaker was the battery and tuning dial.

"The first design used 8 transistors" This gave me a chuckle. I remember long ago, I read the very first Iron Man comic somewhere.

I believe his repulsor blasts were powered by the newfangled and exotic "transistor" technology, with each gauntlet having something like 3 a piece.