Invention of the Transistor

TRANSISTORS – SHOCKLEY, William (1910-1989), John BARDEEN (1908-1991) and Walter H. BRATTAIN (1902-1987), et al. Articles in: The Physical Review . Second series, vols 74⁄2, 75⁄8, and 83⁄1. Lancaster, PA and New York: American Physical Society by the American Institute of Physics, 15 July 1948, 15 April 1949, and 1 July 1951. First editions announcing and explicating the invention of the transistor. This series includes the three brief “letters to the editor” announcing the invention of the transistor in 1948, the first full account of the device in 1949, and the 1951 paper on the junction transistor: the superior design that became the foundation for practical manufacturing. The specific articles are: 1. Brattain and Bardeen. “The Transistor, A Semi-Conductor Triode.” Vol. 74⁄2, 1948, pp. 230-231. 2. Ibid. "Nature of the Forward Current in Germanium Point Contacts." Vol. 74⁄2, 1948, pp. 231-232. 3. Shockley and Gerald. L. PEARSON (1905-1987). "Modulation of Conductance of Thin Films of Semi-Conductors by Surface Charges.” Vol. 74⁄2, 1948, pp. 232-233. 4. Bardeen and Brattain. “Physical Principles Involved in Transistor Action.” Vol. 75⁄8, 1949, pp. 1208-1225. Origins of Cyberspace 450. 5. Shockley, Morgan SPARKS (1916-2008), and G.K. TEAL (1907-2003). “ p-n Junction Transistors.” Vol. 83⁄1, 1951, pp. 151-162. First developed at Bell Labs in 1947, the transistor became an enabling technology of consumer electronics and then the digital age. Conceived as a replacement for the fragile and energy-intensive vacuum tube, it emerged from Bell Labs' pioneering postwar investment in solid-state electronics. "The transistor gradually replaced the bulkier vacuum tube, allowing heat reduction and miniaturization of electronic devices. Transistors began to be employed on a large scale in computer manufacturing in the late 1950s; they were eventually miniaturized and incorporated into microprocessors” ( Origins of Cyberspace ). The invention earned Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded “for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.” Three volumes, quarto. Illustrated from photographs and with diagrams. Original printed blue-green wrappers (backstrips a bit rubbed, particularly first vol., first vol. a trifle sunned, third vol. with some ink check-marks to lower wrapper).

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