Transistor Samples
date: label: date made
content: ca 1948
name: label: maker
content: Bell Telephone Laboratories
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Two early transistors in a sample box distributed by Bell Telephone Labs. Each transistor is a steel, cylindrical can with hole in one side, recessed top, two leads at right angles emerge from the bottom. Printed on top of box: “Bell Telephone Labs. / Transistors / Complimentary Sample / For Experimental Use Only”. One transistor marked: “AP1198”, the other is marked “AP1274”.
label: Description (Brief)
content: John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Telephone Laboratories developed a revolutionary device in 1947: the transistor. Using a semiconductor like germanium, transistors could transmit or amplify electrical currents more reliably and using far less power than vacuum tubes. The Bell Telephone Company provided most of the telephone service in the U.S. at that time but worried about anti-trust regulations should they try to monopolize the transistor invention. So for a licensing fee or $25,000 any company could gain access to transistor technology. This 1948 sample case contains two germanium point-contact transistors “for experimental use only.”
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Gordon Hull, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2003.0231.17
label: accession number
content: 2003.0231
label: catalog number
content: 2003.0231.17
objectType: label: Object Name
content: transistor
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: felt (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: germanium (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 2 1/2 in x 2 1/4 in; 2.54 cm x 6.35 cm x 5.715 cm