Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley had submitted the patent application for a "three-electrode circuit element ...

The future began 75 years ago this week with the invention of something small that’s considered the most manufactured item in human history. Odds are, you are surrounded by them right now. The ...

On Dec. 16, 1947, the future began with the invention of the transistor. A lab notebook indicates that researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories first got the thing to work on this day 75 years ago.

In this lesson, students build two circuits and explore how transistors function. When Bell Labs introduced the transistor in June of 1948, a spokesman proudly announced "This cylindrical object . . .

The telephone company had problems with vacuum tubes, too, and hoped to find something else to use for switching telephone calls. The idea of somehow using semiconductors (solid materials such as ...

Shrinking computers, faster phones, and smarter gadgets all rely on one tiny component: the transistor. Invented in the 20th century, it’s what powers nearly every modern electronic device.

Science keeps discovering new worlds and industry keeps conquering them—sometimes absorbing a few casualties in the process. After the transistor was invented, it caused trouble for many vacuum-tube ...