Posted on 12/21/2011 1:40:23 PM PST by bigbob
Norman Krim, an electronics visionary who played a pivotal role in the industrys transition from the bulky electron vacuum tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the tiny, far more powerful transistor, died on Dec. 14 in a retirement home in Newton, Mass. He was 98. The cause was congestive heart failure, his son Robert said.
Mr. Krim, who made several breakthroughs in a long career with the Raytheon Company and who had an early hand in the growth of the RadioShack chain, did not invent the transistor. (Three scientists did, in 1947, at Bell Laboratories.)
But he saw the devices potential and persuaded his company to begin manufacturing it on a mass scale, particularly for use in miniaturized hearing aids that he had designed. Like the old tube, a transistor is a semiconductor that amplifies audio signals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As one of those experimenters who carefully soldered those treasured CK-722s into simple electronic circuits as a kid, I thank you Mr. Krim. RIP Sir.
/johnny
But keep the filaments turned off on your 807 brewskis.
RIP.
Along with Lee De Forest’s invention of the “Audion” (aka vacuum tube), the development of the transistor ranks up there with movable type, spectacles, and packet switching as a great invention of humankind.
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