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March 1968 Radio-Electronics
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Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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The March 1968
Radio-Electronics "News Briefs" column contained a few interesting tidbits.
The feature highlights three key developments. First, Northern Electric
Laboratories unveiled an electret microphone that could replace carbon-granule
telephone transmitters, offering 90% power reduction and improved audio quality
using a polarized electret film paired with a semiconductor amplifier. Second,
Sylvania engineers developed a compact, battery-powered radar transponder using
a tunnel-diode amplifier and spiral antenna, capable of reflecting signals with
20 dB gain for aircraft tracking. The issue also commemorated the transistor's
21st anniversary, recalling Bell Labs’ 1947 breakthrough by Bardeen, Brattain,
and Shockley, who later won the Nobel Prize. Transistors had since replaced
vacuum tubes and enabled integrated circuits. Finally, the magazine noted the
passing of Elmo Pickerill (1885–1968), wireless pioneer and holder of U.S.
license No. 1. A protégé of Marconi and the Wright brothers, he sent the first
airborne radio transmission in 1910 and championed aviation radio during his
30-year RCA career. His legacy bridged early wireless to modern electronics.
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News Briefs
 Transistors Invented 21 Years Ago
On the afternoon of Dec. 23, 1947, a group of men at Bell Telephone Laboratories
in Murray Hill, N.J., watched a demonstration of a crude device. Made of the element
germanium and a few pieces of wire, the device (see photo) amplified a speech signal
about 40 times. Thus the solid-state era was born; the crude device was the world's'
first transistor.
Bell Labs scientists had been interested in the physics of solid-state material
for some time. In 1940 a modest research effort was begun, but. it was interrupted
by World War II. Following the war, a group at Bell Labs turned full time to semiconductor
research. They concentrated on the two simplest semiconductors - germanium and silicon.
Following one theory, physicist William Shockley proposed a semiconductor amplifier
as a test. The device didn't work out as planned, so his colleague, John Bardeen,
suggested a revision of the theory. During further experiments, Bardeen and coworker
Walter Brattain discovered an entirely new physical phenomenon - the transistor.
(It was so named for transfer resistor.)
The first transistor - a point-contact type - was patented by Bardeen and Brattain.
(Two pieces of pointed metal make contact with a bar of germanium.) In 1948 Shockley
patented the junction type. (A single bar is used, composed of three layers of alternately
positive or negative semiconductor material.) Today the point-contact type is nearly
obsolete, while virtually all transistors are junction types. (An exception is the
insulated-gate, field-effect transistor.)
In 1956, Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley won a Nobel prize for their discovery
of the transistor effect. Today the three physicists are college professors.
Meanwhile, the transistor has grown from a laboratory curiosity to what is probably
the most important and widely used electronic device.
In most areas of electronics, transistors have almost completely replaced vacuum
tubes. The trend toward miniaturization has continued with several transistors being
encapsulated-along with other components - in a tiny IC. Photo shows base of a vacuum
tube (left), a transistor (center), and an IC (right).
In its 21st year, the transistor has really come of age.
E. N. Pickerill Dead at 82
The man who held wireless license No.1 issued by the U.S. Government, died of
a heart attack in January at his home in Mineola, N.Y.
Elmo Pickerill learned radio from Marconi and de Forest, and flying from the
Wright brothers. He met Dr. de Forest in 1904 and became interested in the then-new
art of wireless telegraphy. Later he built and operated the first wireless station
atop New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel. He was a ship's radio operator for many years
and served in the Signal Corps during World War I.
Wanting to prove that radio could link aircraft with the ground, he persuaded
Orville and Wilbur Wright to teach him to fly one of their planes. Flying solo on
August 4, 1910, he transmitted the first wireless message from an airplane. Later
he became a barnstorming pilot and chief pilot for RCA, where he worked from 1920
to 1950. As early as 1925, he foresaw the importance of radio to aviation, predicting
that successful airlines would depend on radio for their operation.
Pickerill was the recipient of many awards in both radio and aviation. At his
death, he was a past president and present director of the Veteran Wireless Operators
Association. past president and present secretary of the de Forest Pioneers, and
a member and former officer of several aviation societies.
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