0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) (03/29/91)
In article, (Digest v11,iss247), Martin McCormick <uccxmgm@unx2.ucc. okstate.edu> asks: > I wonder if they used electrolitic <sic> rectifiers back then to handle > that kind of current? I can only surmise that the earliest ones had to use such methods, Martin. However, my point is to pop in here and say that one of Bell Labs' major functions was continuous efforts at developing what were first called "dry disk rectifiers." They needed to have so much good, reliable DC power that it was obvious they'd be looking for the best materials and methods. That lead to even (successfully) developing solid-state higher-frequency diodes of such quality that the famous balanced "ring modulators" were used with speech signals at frequencies of the order of 100 kHz and up to perform the frequency conversions in carrier channel banks. That was the sort of work Brattain, Shockley and Bardeen were assigned to at Bell Labs -- researching improved diode materials -- when they made a "mistake," hooking up two diodes in an erronoeous fashion, and inadvertently producing a current gain. After they called in colleagues to see check their "error," they discovered they had the transistor! How different a story than today's planned, controlled, deliver-the- accountants-a-known-result "research!" Which raises the question: Could the discovery of the transistor have been the last piece of research serendipity?