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Happy Birthday Transistor

Trivia for today!
The lowly transistor turns 60 years old today today. Talk about your transformational technology! You’re likely using billions of transistors today alone.
Not exactly household names – John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley – invented the thing that ended the dominance of tubes. (See Internet of Tubes)
I remember my first transistor radio in the mid-sixties – AM only! I remember taking TV tubes to the hardware store to test which one was dead on this giant robot like machine. I am certainly under 60 but it shows that it takes a while for these inventions to diffuse.
Stephen

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Posted on: December 16, 2007, 8:16 am Category: Uncategorized

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  1. I still have a guitar amplifier that uses tubes. Haven’t used it in such a long time, but I do clearly remember going to the hardware store to check each little tube and then buying the needed replacement. Wow! Thanks for the opportunity for me to meander down amnesia lane.