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100 Greatest Science Discoveries of All Time Part100
100 Greatest Science Discoveries of All Time Part100
benches they tried to force electric current into the germanium through liquid metals and
then through soldered wire contact points. Most of November and much of December 1947
were consumed with these tests.
They found that the contact points workedsort of. A strong current could be forced
through the germanium to a metal base on the other side. But rather than amplifying a signal
(making it stronger), it actually consumed energy (made it weaker).
Then Bardeen noticed something odd and unexpected. He accidentally misconnected
his electrical leads, sending a micro-current to the germanium contact point. When a very
weak current was trickled through from wire solder point to base, it created a hole in the
germaniums resistance to current flow. A weak current converted the semiconductor into a
superconductor.
Bardeen had to repeatedly demonstrate the phenomenon to convince both himself and
his teammates that his amazing results werent fluke occurrences. Time after time the results were the same with any semiconductor material they tried: high current, high resistance; low current, virtually no resistance.
Bardeen named the phenomenon transfer resistors, or transistors. It provided engineers with a way to both rectify a weak signal and boost it to many times its original
strength. Transistors required only 1/50 the space of a vacuum tube and 1/1,000,000 the
power and could outperform vacuum tubes. For this discovery, the three men shared the
1956 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Fun Facts: The first transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, hit the market
on October 18, 1954. It cost $49.95 (the equivalent of $361 in 2005 dollars!). It wasnt until the late 1960s that transistor radios became cheap
enough for everyone to afford one.
More to Explore
Aaseng, Nathan. American Profiles: Twentieth-Century Inventors. New York: Facts
on File, 1991.
. The Inventors: Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner, 1988.
Hoddeson, Lillian. True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen. Washington,
DC: National Academy Press, 2005.
Olney, Ross. Amazing Transistor: Key to the Computer Age. New York: Simon &
Schuster Childrens, 1998.
Phelan, Glen. Flowing Currents: The Quest to Build Tiny Transistors. Washington,
DC: National Geographic Society, 2006.
Riordan, Michael. Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1997.
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