[sci.electronics] Transistor Trivia

cygnet@well.UUCP (Joseph C. Decuir) (10/27/89)

In trying to settle a bet I would like to know what company and year
the first Transistor was shipped commercially? Also, who was the
first to sell a Transistor radio and in what year?

Would you please tell how you know this information.
Thanks in advance.
_Eric Cook_

mac@harris.cis.ksu.edu (Myron A. Calhoun) (10/28/89)

In article <14290@well.UUCP> cygnet@well.UUCP (Joseph C. Decuir) writes:
>In trying to settle a bet I would like to know what company and year
>the first Transistor was shipped commercially? Also, who was the
>first to sell a Transistor radio and in what year?

While in high school I made two 4-transistor TRF receivers.  All four
transistors were CK-722, the first transistor to be sold for under
a doller (i.e., 99 cents!) each.  One of the radios I built into
a hollowed-out book (talk about hours of work with a razor blade!)
and the other I sold to one of my high school buddies.

I used my radio to listen to the world series while supposedly studying
in study hall.  I was forced to endure study hall only twice during my
high school years, and I'm sure my senior year was NOT one of them.
I graduated in the spring of 1959; thus the above was probably done in
the Fall of 1957.

>Would you please tell how you know this information.
I was there.

Incidentally, my buddy eventually sat upon (or otherwise mangled) his
radio and he gave it back to me for salvage.  I still have all of the
CK-722 transistors!
--Myron
--
Myron A. Calhoun, PhD EE, W0PBV, (913) 532-6350 (work), 539-4448 (home).
INTERNET: mac@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu
BITNET:   mac@ksuvax1.bitnet
UUCP:  ...{rutgers, texbell}!ksuvax1!harry!mac

commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (10/28/89)

I believe Regency of Indianapolis marketed the first transistor radio,
circa 1956.


>... my buddy eventually sat upon (or otherwise mangled) his
>radio and he gave it back to me for salvage.  I still have all of the
>CK-722 transistors!
>--Myron A. Calhoun, PhD EE, W0PBV

I burned out my Raytheon CK-722, so dissected it.  To my surprise, 
there was another smaller blue aluminum case (with red dot on emitter) 
inside the outer one, with a layer of white plastic foam between. Why 
did they do that??  It seemed more like thermal insulation than a heat 
sink, and germanium transistors couldn't stand heat.

--

Frank Reid     W0MKV @ K9IU     reid@gold.bacs.indiana.edu

bruces@sco.COM (Kid Marcom) (10/28/89)

I laughed so hard I almost snorted an antler
when mac@harris.cis.ksu.edu (Myron A. Calhoun) said,
HA! In article <14290@well.UUCP> cygnet@well.UUCP (Joseph C. Decuir) writes:
HA! >In trying to settle a bet I would like to know what company and year
HA! >the first Transistor was shipped commercially? Also, who was the
HA! >first to sell a Transistor radio and in what year?
HA! 
HA! While in high school I made two 4-transistor TRF receivers.  All four
HA! transistors were CK-722, the first transistor to be sold for under
HA! a doller (i.e., 99 cents!) each.  One of the radios I built into
HA! a hollowed-out book (talk about hours of work with a razor blade!)
HA! and the other I sold to one of my high school buddies.
HA! 
HA! I used my radio to listen to the world series while supposedly studying
HA! in study hall.  I was forced to endure study hall only twice during my
HA! high school years, and I'm sure my senior year was NOT one of them.
HA! I graduated in the spring of 1959; thus the above was probably done in
HA! the Fall of 1957.
HA!                     <...>
///////////////

Wow, the CK-722.  Haven't thought about THAT for a long time.  I
can't be sure off-hand if it came first, but around the same
period I also recall that venerable dynamic duo, the 2N34 and
2N35.  As I remember, the CK-722 was a black, rectangular ceramic
unit with the Texas Instruments "TI" logo on it, while the 2N34
(PNP) and 2N35 (NPN) came in silver metal can packages that made
them look like little crystals, and were made by Sylvania and
others.  They were both available individually at retail packed on
cardboard cards, and cost around five bucks each.  

I used them with a variety of 1N* diodes to build a number of
useless radios that picked up nothing but the ubiquitous and
overwhelmingly powerful signal of the KEA860 "Page Boy" paging
service transmitter atop the Empire State Building, which did
nothing but spew endless streams of three-digit numbers all day
and all night.

I got my first ticket in the fall of 1956, and I'd say I became
aware of these babies within that Novice year.  By 1958, I
remember using later "high-power" transistors (2N94 maybe?) to
build obnoxious dog-whistle oscillators that could subliminally
make a whole classroom squirm - what a jerk.

I don't remember who made the first transistor radio, but I know
I couldn't afford one - I was happy to score a laptop-size green
portable with tubes in it that began with "1"s.

Bruce Steinberg (N6LZ)
uunet!sco!bruces
-- 
It's not what you look like when you're doin' what you're doin',
it's what you're doin' when you're doin' what it looks like you're doin'.

                                -Charles Wright and the Watts 103

rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) (11/01/89)

In article <14290@well.UUCP> cygnet@well.UUCP (Joseph C. Decuir) writes:
>In trying to settle a bet I would like to know what company and year
>the first Transistor was shipped commercially? Also, who was the
>first to sell a Transistor radio and in what year?
>
>Would you please tell how you know this information.
>Thanks in advance.
>_Eric Cook_


Memory, that semi-volatile substance we all posess tells me that in the late
50's, Emerson made an eight-transistor radio that sold for about $88.00
whose model number was (natch): 888.  A friend of mine had one, but his
daddy was a physician while mine was only a bricklayer.

You can quote me, but don't put any money on me!  Does anybody else remember
that radio, and am I right about the price?  They had nice pastel cases in
the era's popular colors, you know, like aqua, lime, peach...


Rich
-- 
We use kill ratios to measure how the war is going.
We use SLOC ratios to measure how our software is coming.
(Idea from Gary Seath)                                        rsd@sei.cmu.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ISW@cup.portal.com (Isaac S Wingfield) (11/02/89)

The first commercial transistor was, without a doubt (IMHO)
made by Regency. It's sensitivity was such that it could
pick up the more powerful local stations most of the time.
It used a 22.5 volt battery. Hit the market ca. 1957, and cost
about $55.

To the best of my memory,
Isaac
isw@cup.portal.com

skyrider@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Bill Morris) (11/05/89)

In article <23612@cup.portal.com>, ISW@cup.portal.com (Isaac S Wingfield) writes:
> The first commercial transistor was, without a doubt (IMHO)
> made by Regency. It's sensitivity was such that it could
> pick up the more powerful local stations most of the time.
> It used a 22.5 volt battery. Hit the market ca. 1957, and cost
> about $55.

Right about most of it.  The Regency TR1 was intro'd in 1954. 
In terms of sensitivity, picking up powerful stations was just about the 
ONLY thing it could do.  Transistors were pretty unreliable quality, and 
the only way you could make a decent set was to use 7 or 8 of them.
Regency used only 4, so the result was poor sensitivity, and low audio
level.

Pretty awful receiver, but it's worth a bit, since it was the first.

BTW, anyone have one they want to sell?  Am looking for one!!
-- 
|Bill Morris--bsu-cs!skyrider|"I had nothing to do and nowhere to go.  |
|Box 52-Swinford Hall        | Ball State found me--now I have plenty  |
|Muncie, IN  47306-1085      | to do and nowhere to go."--Lorgo Numputz|
|PH#(317)285-3606            |**LOOKING FOR EARLY *TRANSISTOR* RADIOS**|

eri316@tijc02.UUCP (Ed Ingraham ) (11/06/89)

From article <14290@well.UUCP>, by cygnet@well.UUCP (Joseph C. Decuir):
> In trying to settle a bet I would like to know what company and year
> the first Transistor was shipped commercially? Also, who was the
> first to sell a Transistor radio and in what year?
> 
> Would you please tell how you know this information.
> Thanks in advance.
> _Eric Cook_

From "A Biography of Mark Shepherd" in the _TI Technical Journal_
of March-April, 1988:

"While TI believed in the future of solid-state electronics, it still
needed to prove to a skeptical world the practicality of transistors
and TI's ability to produce them. In 1954, TI entered into a joint
program with the Regency Radio division of Industrial Development
Engineering Associates, and Mark's operation was charged with getting
into production a radio made with germanium transistors by October of
that year in order to place it on the market by Christmas."

"The result -- the Regency Radio -- opened the commercial market for
transistors by showing it was practical to use the small components in
mass-produced consumer products. For three years, TI was supplying
transistors for almost every portable radio manufactured in the
United States."

After a couple of phone calls to Dallas, we found at least one of the
original engineering prototypes in the hands of one of the design team.

Ed Ingraham
Texas Instruments
Johnson City, Tennessee