TRANSISTOR INVENTION CODE
TRANSISTOR INVENTION TRIAL

Little did I know that I was working with one of the first solid-state devices: a predecessor of the point-contact transistor.

TRANSISTOR INVENTION TRIAL

There was nothing! I had heard that you needed to fiddle with the cat’s whisker on the galena face to find the “hot” spot.Īfter some trial and error, suddenly the sound of a radio station burst through on the headphones. The crystal detector consisted of a small cylindrical piece of galena placed in proximity to a moveable arm which had a spring-like bronze wire called a cat’s whisker that was used to contact the galena.Īfter I assembled the parts and connected it to a wire antenna and cold water pipe, I listened for a sound. Getting the costly phones and crystal was the most difficult part. This involved winding a coil of copper wire on an old cardboard tube and making a slider for tuning. A good antenna and ground were needed for reception. This common circuit didn’t use a tuning capacitor, but used the capacitance of the antenna to form the tuned circuit with the coil. It employed a galena crystal with a cat whisker for detection, a homemade coil with slider for tuning, and a pair of surplus headphones. It was fascinating for a while, but my interest really took off when I decided to make my own crystal radio set like the one in Figure 1.įIGURE 1.

TRANSISTOR INVENTION CODE

Its blue painted metal case had the Morse code printed in white on top, a simple key, a light bulb, an internal buzzer, and it operated on two D cells. My fascination with electronics began at an early age when I received a Standard Radio Telegraph Signal Set from my parents. We’ll also look at the early history of semiconductors, as well as the impact of vacuum tubes on transistor development. We’ll examine the contributions of the personalities and organizations involved, as well as the impetus that led to this landmark invention. In this article, we’ll look back on this period that launched the serious study of solid-state devices. However, behind this story of invention is one of collaborative genius, serendipitous mishaps, clashing egos, and secret research. It spawned a huge semiconductor industry generating hundreds of billions of dollars in sales. It started with a Bell Telephone Laboratories program of basic research on solid-state physics in 1936 that produced a replacement for the vacuum tube in the 1950s and eventually gave us integrated circuits and the microprocessor. Without it, developments such as the personal computer, cellphones, the GPS system, pacemakers, hearing aids, and the Internet would not exist. It is considered by researchers and historians to be the most important invention of the 20th century, leading to groundbreaking advances in computing, communications, medicine, and practically every technically related field. » Skip to the Extras An Invention that Changed the World Life would not be the same without the transistor, which was invented just over seven decades ago.

Transistor invention