The Transistor. Who Knew...

[Jim]

Trans (transient) ister (resistor). Resistance in a transient state. It changed the world. I've spent my adult life dealing with transistors. And you guys prolly don't realize it, but so have you.

Gentlemen, I give you the humble transistor.

 

[Jim]

 

[Downeaster]

I went to the Navy's Electronics Tech Class "A" school in 1969/70. Just a touch over a year long. Since the bulk of the Navy's electronics was vacuum tube based, so was the school. The existence of transistors was acknowledged, but I don't recall much, if any, classroom time spent on them.

From my graduation until late 1979 the equipment I worked on used tubes with the exception of one "advanced" bit of encryption gear that used potted modules containing transistors. No troubleshooting to component level, just figure out which module had failed and replace it.

In 1979/80 I retrained on an entirely new system and it was 99% integrated chips so again no transistors except a few in the power supply area.

I struggled in "A" school but for some reason - a little more maturity and some field experience I suspect - digital/binary logic came to me easily and I kicked that school's ass. So much so, they recycled me as an instructor, thereby avoiding certain sea duty. Darn...

 

[resto]

Back in my day, we used to carve our transistors out of wood.

The trick is to use two different kinds of wood so that you get that "P-N" junction thing happening........

 

[Jim]

I struggled in "A" school but for some reason - a little more maturity and some field experience I suspect - digital/binary logic came to me easily and I kicked that school's ass.

Same here... Air Force electronics school was just shy of a yr. Mostly tubes ('72) but the last 2 mo was all digital. Tube tech kicked my ass, but AND/OR... NAND/NOR... that all clicked for some reason. Nowadays I need to watch Youtube jus' to figure out how to reset a breaker.

 

[Myuncles650]

Trans (transient) ister (resistor). Resistance in a transient state. It changed the world. I've spent my adult life dealing with transistors. And you guys prolly don't realize it, but so have you.

Gentlemen, I give you the humble transistor.

My grandfather (lived to nearly 102!) worked as an engineer in radio until his company wanted him to get involved in a new invention (television) which ended up being his lifelong career. He told me how blown away he was when he learned about transistors and could not even come close to fathom how they would change the world in hindsight.

 

[jetmechmarty]

He told me how blown away he was when he learned about transistors and could not even come close to fathom how they would change the world in hindsight.

We make them pretty small these days.