page_title: 1950s
section_title: Technology
hierarchical_section_title: 1950s / Science and technology / Technology
caption_attribution_description: English: A replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in the world to be put into outer space: the replica is stored in the National Air and Space Museum. فارسی: مدل ماهواره اسپوتنیک-۱، نخستین ماهواره فضایی جهان Suomi: Sputnik 1:n, maailman ensimmäinen ihmisen laukaiseman Maata kiertävän keinotekoisen satelliittin, jäljennös.
context_page_description: The 1950s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959.
  By its end, the world had largely recovered from World War II and the Cold War developed from its modest beginning in the late-1940s to a hot competition between the United States and the Soviet Union by the early-1960s.
  Clashes between communism and capitalism dominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The conflicts included the Korean War in the beginnings of the decade and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons, this created a politically conservative climate. In the United States, the Second Red Scare caused Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress and anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the decade. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade.
context_section_description: The recently invented bipolar transistor, though initially quite feeble, had clear potential and was rapidly improved and developed at the beginning of the 1950s by companies such as GE, RCA, and Philco. The first commercial transistor production started at the Western Electric plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October, 1951 with the point contact germanium transistor. It wasn't until around 1954 that transistor products began to achieve real commercial success with small portable radios.
  A breakthrough in semiconductor technology came with the invention of the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor, by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs, in November 1959. It revolutionized the electronics industry, and became the fundamental building block of the Digital Revolution. The MOSFET went on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.
  Television, which first reached the marketplace in the 1940s, attained maturity during the 1950s and by the end of the decade, most American households owned a TV set. A rush to produce larger screens than the tiny ones found on 1940s models occurred during 1950–52. In 1954, RCA intro Bell Telephone Labs produced the first Solar battery. In 1954, a yard of contact paper could be purchased for only 59 cents. Polypropylene was invented in 1954. In 1955, Jonas Salk invented a polio vaccine which was given to more than seven million American students. In 1956, a solar powered wrist watch was invented.
  A surprise came in 1957: a 184-pound (83 kg) satellite named Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviets. The space race began 4 months later as the United States launched a smaller satellite. In 1958, the first plastic Coke bottle appeared.
  Charles H. Townes builds the Maser in 1953 at the Columbia University.
  The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth on October 4, 1957.
  The United States conducts its first hydrogen bomb explosion test.
  The invention of the modern Solar cell.
  The first Passenger jets enter service.
  The U.S. uses Federal prisons, mental institutions and pharmacological testing volunteers to test drugs like LSD and chlorpromazine. Also started experimenting with the transorbital lobotomy.
  President Harry S. Truman inaugurated transcontinental television service on September 4, 1951, when he made a speech to the nation. AT&T carried his address from San Francisco and it was viewed from the west coast to the east coast at the same time.
caption: In 1957, the Soviet Union launches to space Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
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