Unknown Heroes: William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain
There are people out there who change our world, and we have no idea
who they are. I intend on highlighting them with "Unknown Hero"
postings.
William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain collaborated, in 1947, to change the world and make your computer, cell phone, microwave, digital camera, car, calculator, airplane, electric toothbrush (you get my drift) possible. This is the 50th anniversary of their work, so we should honor them. These are William, John and Walter:
William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain collaborated, in 1947, to change the world and make your computer, cell phone, microwave, digital camera, car, calculator, airplane, electric toothbrush (you get my drift) possible. This is the 50th anniversary of their work, so we should honor them. These are William, John and Walter:
Even though this trio won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for inventing the solid state transistor, we wouldn't recognize any of their photos. We don't know the last one of these men passed away in over 15 years ago. So, what merited the Nobel Prize? What is a solid state transistor? Whoo-bi-di-whaaa?
Just after World War II, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain collected at Bell Labs' new Solid State Physics Group in New Jersey. They were hired with the aim to invent a robust replacement for vacuum tube amplifiers. Two years later, they were successful. Let's explore this achievement.
Vacuum tubes allowed those first, tennis-court sized computer to even exist. In fact, they were the reason those computers were tennis-court sized. As we all know, computers work in binary (all 1's and 0'), but what the HECK does that mean? It means the computer needs the ability to have toggle something on/off, depending on whether it's a zero (off) or a one (on). When you do this with thousands (now billions) of points that can change on/off quickly, you can actually compute something. Those first computers turned vacuum tubes on and off as their processing tool.
Vacuum tubes worked by running an electric charge through a vacuum, usually created in a glass container. Much like a light bulb, the electricity will send off particles; a plate on the other side registered that activity. Once that's registered, the tube is, officially, on. That setup posed lots of problems: keeping a true vacuum is hard, the electric current deteriorates the materials in the bulb and they need to be replaced regularly and they required insane amounts of electricity to operate. Oh, and they are HUGE.
So, the work these men did in Bell Labs in NJ was amazing. The step to solid state transistor was inevitable, but that doesn't take away the accomplishment. They took that large, cumbersome on/off technique and made it smaller, easier, lower-power-drinking system. Computers instantly shrunk and were easier to run. The transistor's come far from there, but the principles laid out by this trio are still alive. Now you have millions of transistors on the chip in your computer. Some have billions. The men passed away in the 80's and 90's, but their work will live on until... well... the end, really. In fact, the thing that powers the end of it all will probably have transistors all up in it.
The story itself is quite controversial as the guys weren't such great collaborators - Shockley's name wasn't included in the original patent, and he had to go behind the other twoze backs (NJ reference) and develop the more advanced sandwich transistor to prove his worth and get his name in the history books. I'm sure there will be a movie about this soon enough, except he'll be employee #3 at the new CIA, his wife will be unintentionally trying to kill him because she was scared by an faming accident she saw when she was four, and Shockley will cry a lot, be persecuted because he was black and do tons of pushups. Oh, Hollywood... I'm sure your striking writers' are taking notes.
Thanks William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain. You make this blog possible. HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].
Vacuum tubes allowed those first, tennis-court sized computer to even exist. In fact, they were the reason those computers were tennis-court sized. As we all know, computers work in binary (all 1's and 0'), but what the HECK does that mean? It means the computer needs the ability to have toggle something on/off, depending on whether it's a zero (off) or a one (on). When you do this with thousands (now billions) of points that can change on/off quickly, you can actually compute something. Those first computers turned vacuum tubes on and off as their processing tool.
Vacuum tubes worked by running an electric charge through a vacuum, usually created in a glass container. Much like a light bulb, the electricity will send off particles; a plate on the other side registered that activity. Once that's registered, the tube is, officially, on. That setup posed lots of problems: keeping a true vacuum is hard, the electric current deteriorates the materials in the bulb and they need to be replaced regularly and they required insane amounts of electricity to operate. Oh, and they are HUGE.
So, the work these men did in Bell Labs in NJ was amazing. The step to solid state transistor was inevitable, but that doesn't take away the accomplishment. They took that large, cumbersome on/off technique and made it smaller, easier, lower-power-drinking system. Computers instantly shrunk and were easier to run. The transistor's come far from there, but the principles laid out by this trio are still alive. Now you have millions of transistors on the chip in your computer. Some have billions. The men passed away in the 80's and 90's, but their work will live on until... well... the end, really. In fact, the thing that powers the end of it all will probably have transistors all up in it.
The story itself is quite controversial as the guys weren't such great collaborators - Shockley's name wasn't included in the original patent, and he had to go behind the other twoze backs (NJ reference) and develop the more advanced sandwich transistor to prove his worth and get his name in the history books. I'm sure there will be a movie about this soon enough, except he'll be employee #3 at the new CIA, his wife will be unintentionally trying to kill him because she was scared by an faming accident she saw when she was four, and Shockley will cry a lot, be persecuted because he was black and do tons of pushups. Oh, Hollywood... I'm sure your striking writers' are taking notes.
Thanks William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain. You make this blog possible. HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].
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