How Europe Missed The Transistor

http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/how-europe-missed-the-transistor

by Ras_ • 17 years ago

20 9 17 years ago

spectrum.ieee.org

jacquesm4• 17 years ago

Europe did not so much 'miss the transistor' because of a lack of inventiveness or the fact that they they'd already almost discovered it for any other reason than that recovering from the greatest war to that date Europe in 1948 was absolutely no match for any other country that had managed to stay in one piece.

What should amaze more I think is how much was achieved in fields not directly related to rebuilding in that period, in spite of that gigantic handicap.

The winter of '44 was one of the worst famines in living memory and by '48 the continent was still very much in recovery mode.

Also a lot of the achievements that put the US firmly on the map as the world leader in technology after the war were in fact pioneered in Germany during the war.

Not in the least the rocket technology that led to the successful moonshot.

Edit: reading further down in the article it's funny how they try to patent something they know for sure is already working and invented elsewhere.

The article also seems to contradict itself slightly, because the European device was unstable until they learned about the American one and the explanation behind the physics of it, but in the conclusion it writes: "And it seems clear from the still-sketchy historical record that they indeed had a working, reliable amplifier by that time." but the rest of the article has no real arguments underpinning that statement.

Very interesting read though.

dantheman• 17 years ago

I think it's important to mention that the technology was not just pioneered in germany, but the actual pioneers moved to the US.

jacquesm4• 17 years ago

You are absolutely right about that. I'm sorry, I can't mod you up or I would have.

Werner von Braun is an interesting case all by himself because anybody else in Germany with as much standing in the Nazi party and use of concentration camp resources for their research would have surely been executed after a swift trial in Neuremberg.

Instead von Braun was made a naturalized citizen of the US in '55.

Lots of other info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

mixmax• 17 years ago

"What is arguably the most important invention of the 20th century remarkably occurred twice--and independently."

This is actually quite normal, as any patent attorney will tell you. The telephone is another well known exammple of this occurring. (Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray) It seems that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come, it's just a matter of who will get the rewards.

jacquesm4• 17 years ago

Another good reason for the total abolishment of patents.

Almost every patentable invention is but a minor advance in the state of the art.

jeroen• 17 years ago

Single page: http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/how-europe-m...

teeja• 17 years ago

Interesting ... hadn't seen much of that before.

Once again I have to wonder why such articles ignore Lilienfield's work (from 20 years before)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Edgar_Lilienfeld

and how he profited (if at all) from his patents.

How Europe Missed The Transistor

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