The transistor was invented at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, working in a group led by William Shockley. The first working device, a point-contact transistor made of germanium, was demonstrated in December 1947, and Shockley soon developed the more practical junction transistor. The three men shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Transistors could amplify and switch electrical signals like vacuum tubes, but were smaller, cheaper, more reliable and used far less power. Combined into integrated circuits in the late 1950s, they became the basic building block of computers, radios, telephones and nearly all modern electronics.
Before and after
- 30 October 1947General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
- 20 November 1947Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten
- from 30 November 1947 to 14 May 19481947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
- from 30 November 1947 to 20 July 19491948 Palestine war
- December 1947Transistor
- 6 December 1947Establishment of Everglades National Park
- 14 December 1947Construction of Bernabéu
- 14 December 1947Birth of Dilma Rousseff
- 1948Origins of Nippon Professional Baseball
More in Science & technology
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 1971Email
- 1973Mobile phone
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- 20 October 2004Creation of Ubuntu
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.