Incredible Engineering- Inventing the Transistor

The tiny transistor revolutionized modern electronics, from radios to supercomputers. Discover its fascinating origins, unexpected twists, and the minds behind this world-changing invention. Watch now!

Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels:

→Subscribe for new videos every day!

[johnbhancock]

My interest in in electronics started at the age of 12, 58 years ago. It subsequently became my profession and even at this age I take a keen interest in science and technology. I have to say this this is the best explanation of the history and operation of the transistor that I have ever heard. A master class in technical communication. Indeed I have been introducing some of my grandchildren to electronics and this will be my go-to introduction to the transistor.

[brentdaloney]

I've often come across people asking "what was the greatest (modern) invention?". some answer are the cell phone, iPhone, computer, vehicles and others. My answer is always "the Transistor", because without the transistor, our modern society would absolutely NOT exist.

[gokeefe]

Of all the thousands of educational/informative videos I've watched, it's just occured to me that this is the first one that even explained how a vacuum tube works. I had no idea before today, which is crazy to me.

[sergeikorolevGZ]

20:21 Marie Curie also won 2 Nobel Prizes; The Physics Prize in 1903 and the Chemistry Prize in 1911, making her the only person to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different sciences

[pcfred]

Bratton and Bardeen were both living in my home town when they invented the transistor. I grew up next door to Bell Labs. Dennis Ritchie grew up in my home town too. He went on to develop the C programming language and the UNIX operating system. He worked at Bell Labs too. The Labs was a famous place. By 1982 it was all over though. It's still there. The glory days are behind it now though.

[bowen]

My brother bought the first transister device anyone in our neighborhood had ever seen in 1960. He was an electronics nut at 15 yearsokd. I was 7. It was a little AM radio, about 4.5 in. by 3 inches by 1.5 inches. Came in a real leather little case. It was pretty tiny and crackly, but it worked. He told us all about transistors.

[lewiswestfall]

The vacuum tube stayed on for a long time as TV picture tubes and computer displays.

[richvandervecken]

Thanks for making this video! I had to learn all that history when I went through my U.S.A.F. technical school back in 1981. We had to learn all of the vacuum tube theory because the military still used a great deal of equipment that had been manufactured in the 1950's at the time. The two classes in my year long tech school that created the largest percentage of failures were the tube theory course and the transistor theory course. Remarkably the course we had on the 6502 microprocessor had a much lower failure rate. I calibrated and repaired to the component level many multimeters, power supplies, and oscilloscopes in the four years I spent in the military. If I knew then what I know now I would have gone into the department ( physical dimensions ) that calibrated torque wrenches and pressure gauges as well as thickness gauges and granite flat plates because those with experience in those area's make way more money in the civilian world even though they are all pass / fail calibrations with very few adjustments possible.

[EEVblog]

Where can I get one of these "Transitor's" as per the video title?

[kristakis]

@13:30 "current from the collector to the base was modulated by applying a current to the emitter". It feels to me like the words base and emitter have been transposed but maybe that's how their device worked.

[rhekman]

18:31 Other notable Fairchild Semiconductor alumni --
Jerry Sanders - left Fairchild shortly after Moore & Noyce with other employees to start Advanced Micro Devices - AMD.
Federico Faggin - joined Intel and led the design group that created the first commercial microprocessor the 4004, then left Intel to found Zilog and designed the Z80.

[CaptHudson]

Dad engineered at Univac. Large (for the time) color TV built using "Stone Knifes and Bearskins" or a Heathkit with tubes.

[exoplanet]

In addition to transistors, one thing that wouldn't have happened without inventor Lee de Forest was the name of actor: "DeForest Kelley", whose character, Dr. McCoy would later be involved in the invention of Transparent Aluminum.

[nonstopbg]

Marie Curie also has two Nobel Prizes, you have even made videos about her. How is he the first person to do so?

[myriaddsystems]

Even De Forest didn’t know the mathematical theory to understand how valves worked, it took Armstrong to work that out- I think

[rickpontificates]

The 3 most important inventions in the history of the world; THE WHEEL, ANTIBIOTICS, THE TRANSISTOR

[hardlygamaliel]

DeForest was actually tried and convicted of mail fraud because the judge in his case couldn't understand how a current could flow across a vacuum. Teaches you something about courts ruling on technical subjects.

[timothyenke]

The amount of information I learn from Simon and crew is dumbfounding! Unfortunately, I probably forget it as soon as the next video drops!😅

[Cheka__]

I can't wait for the day when we have computers capable of doing hundreds of calculations per second that are small enough to fit in a little bedroom.

[jsmith]

Hi Daven @ 8:07 (Inserted still frame of Daven)