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
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