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Science In Action

CHAPTER

The World's First Jerry Rig Transistor

Walter Bratton created the world's first transistor 75 years ago this week. The basic groundwork had been laid during World War II in radar, but here was the crude, electrically driven switch which is the basis of all electronics today. I went to Bell Labs, the birthplace and to Silicon Valley in 1997 for the 50th anniversary to meet some of the pioneers. We were bold over by the idea of computer chips that had seven and a half million components squeezed onto them,. whirring away as we searched the internet or edited radio reports.

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