American Journal of Physics · 1999 · 24 citations · 0 references
EngineeringElectrical EngineeringPhysicsElectronic MaterialsMicroelectronicsSemiconductor DevicesElectronics TechnologyHistorical Development Of ScienceHistory Of ScienceNature Of TechnologyTechnology HistoryComputing HistoryHistory Of Scientific DiscoveryInformation Technology History
The transistor, invented by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947, became a foundational device for modern life, sparking the Information Age. The paper narrates the scientific and personal forces that led to the transistor’s invention. The authors survey the competitive, economic, and inventive processes that drove the transistor’s development. The transistor’s creation, with output exceeding input, inaugurated the Information Age.
On December 16, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, physicists at Bell Laboratories, jabbed two electrodes into a sliver of the metalloid geranium. The power flowing from the geranium far exceeded what went in; in that moment the transistor was invented and the Information Age was born. No other devices have been as crucial to modern life as the transistor and the microchip it spawned. This is the story of the science and personalities that made these inventions possible. William Shockley, Bell Labs' team leader and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize with Brattain and Bardeen for the discovery, grew obsessed with the transistor and went on to become the father of Silicon Valley. The process of invention - including the competition and economic aspirations involved - all part of the greatest technological explosion in history is surveyed here.