UKC

ago this year the Transistor was invented.  Something without which we would not be living our modern lives and it's pretty certain I wouldn't be typing this now.  Perhaps, without it, we'd never have developed the computer power to recognize climate change, certainly not to develop Covid vaccines.

When I was a boy I'd shyly go into a shop to buy an OC71 after saving pocket money ...  New technology!

As used in this book by a clergyman (the target is a pdf of a book)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&...

And you could scrape the paint off an OC71 and make a phototransistor...

They dont sound or even smell the same as an EL34.

Good book. I'm sure I read it, back in the day. Then moved on the the more racier output by R. A. Penfold.

Some of the old audio compressors and limiters were a lightbulb and one of those in a bit of light proof tube. As the input level went up, the bulb lit up, which shone on the transistor, which turned the gain down.

oh yes!

That's pretty impressive. I never got past 'Magnets, Bulbs and Batteries'.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnets-Batteries-Ladybird-Junior-Science/dp/07214...

it was all "magic" to a young mind though

The early history of the transistor is fascinating in scientific terms but was also important in world economic terms.

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

US anti-trust pressure in 1949 led to Bell agreeing to share the technology. If we imagine the current US views on monopolies being applied at that time, modern IT could have been held back a decade or more. The irony is some of the economic views on this now see what happened as a bad thing!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB110729925236542968

I remember in 1949 which was the centenary of Chopin's death listening to the nightly concert on my crystal set tucked up in bed after lights out. Anyone remember making crystal sets? 

A printed circuit board with individual transistors would cover an area of about 5 square kilometres if it were to emulate a modern computer chip containing the equivalent of 50 billion transistors!

yes, helped by Practical Wireless

something quite magical about energy coming out of thin air and turning into speech and music

As Offwidth said, it is a really interesting period of history.   I perhaps find it interesting as the 1950s was the era into which I was born and valves still were everywhere when I was a kid.

Bell effectively gave us Linux as a descendant of Unix as well.  Shows what unfettered pure "academic" research can provide in the long term, even in the context of private enterprise

I remember having that book from when I was a kid.  

it's quite sought after now I believe, regarded as a bit of a masterpiece

Oh nostalgia ! Of course the bipolar transistor is pretty marginalised these days in favour of MOSFETS, which is conceptually the simpler technology in any case - I mean, trying to get an intuitive description of what happens in the base region of a BJT !

Shockley is not for celebrating!

as I found out a bit later in life!   Not a great character.  I prefer to think of it as a team effort.

I'll stick to germanium then - I understand it's making a bit of a comeback

Well Silicon Germanium has in niche applications.  Those old leaky PNP germanium transistors certainly haven't!