The transistor is a device that can strengthen or weaken signals traveling through it. Today they are used in everything from supercomputers to iPhones. The first transistor was made by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Laboratories in 1947. The way their transistor worked is there was a piece of semi-conducting material that was attached to a strong electrical field by two golden wires that connected them. There was one problem with it, though. The semi-conducting material had a sort of shield of electrons surrounding it, and the only way to get through it was to cover it with water, which would negate the shield. However, if the gold wires touched the water, it would not work, for the same reason you don't go swimming with your phone in your pocket (unless it’s waterproof). They fixed this by coating the wires in sealing wax. That way, the wires would not touch the water.
The transistor was later improved in 1948 by William Shockley. His transistor was composed of three layers of germanium. The top and bottom layers had an excess of electrons, while the inner one was lacking in electrons. This made it so a current could pass through it freely. Shockley had plans to build another, better, transistor that was four layers, but it was discovered that his plan would not succeed. However, instead of reacting like Bardeen and Brattain did and changing his plan to find a better solution, he blamed all his employees for the failure, and decided they banded together to sabotage him. He ended up using lie detector tests to make sure they weren't sabotaging him, and ultimately destroyed his company.
Mesa Transistor |
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