The tiny, mighty transistor

LA Times ^ | 15 December 2007 | By Saswato R. Das

[DManA]

To put it in political terms, if the price government had kept pace with the price drop of a transistor, democrats would be able to deliver what they promise for the of pizza.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.

[Paladin2]

Cost decline with shrinking physical size. Time to shrink gov’t.

[randog]

Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.

I'll second that.

[ßuddaßudd]

IC bump

[A.A. Cunningham]

[fhayek]

They kept the discovery to themselves for a bit, and showed their bosses the device just before Christmas

You don't suppose that they were contemplating keeping the idea (and profit) for themselves?

[DManA]

Moore-on’s Law - The number of bureaucrats that can fit inside the DC beltway increases exponentially.

[canuck_conservative]

But’s let’s also not forget the triode, the world’s first electrical amplifier and switch - which celebrates its 100th Anniversary next year.

It was the triode which allowed the creation of the first radios, televisions, and yes, even computers.

[Rudder]

Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.

Right up there with the telephone, automobile, airplane, television...

[Young Werther]

But second to the invention of "Globulus Warming!"

Talk about a Gorejus source of power!

[fhayek]

I think that the atomic bomb had the greatest ‘impact’.

[Young Werther]

A fellow Toastmaster who passed in 1995 was our equivalent of Indiana Jones. As a youngster he followed the events of the Titanic sinking and built his first radio from parts and pieces he could find in the local hardware store. He matriculated at Purdue and graduated in 1919 with a degree in {GULP} Electrical Engineering.

He was hired by Western Electric and in 1921, (or thereabouts), participated in the first Transcontinental Telephone call that was made possible by those new fangled vacuum tube amplifiers.

He retired in 1966 with a healthy portfolio of ATT stock. He moved to Texas after his wife passed and lived with his daughter. He was a high school teacher who taught night classes for those kidswho had dropped out and now needed a GED. He felt that in his small way he was "giving back"!

He was a real "live wire" who amplified his talents and broadcast his feelings!!

[Musketeer]

Try living without toilet paper, the washing machine and duct tape.

[ken21]

ooooh!

profiteering is evil capitalism.

/s

[oldsalt]

Reverse engineered from the Roswell wreckage of July 1947?....I’m just sayin’.

[fhayek]

I don’t mind the profiting, but if they developed the transistor on Bell Laboratory’s time, then Bell should profit. I’m not impugning the inventors, just that it took ten days to tell their bosses about ‘the most significant invention of the twentieth century’. There may have been temptation for one of them to break off and claim they invented it independently. Can’t say that I wouldn’t have been tempted too. Anyway, they didn’t do that, so they did the proper thing.

[Last Dakotan]

In the Smithsonian?

[MarkL]

Oh come on now... We all know that Bell Labs didn’t “invent” the transistor! They reverse engineered it from the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. It was in all the papers!

Mark