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Crystal Fire
by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson

One of the most important inventions that made the modern world was the transistor. Look around you and see how many objects around you now come with transistors or a microprocessor; the computer you may be using now to read this, your watch, your pager, your mobile phone, your air-conditioner, your fan, your music system, your car, your phone, etc.: the list goes on and on.

This book covers the invention of the transistor and the lives of the three people who made it happen, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, and the environment and people at Bell Labs and various other places, like Texas Instruments, that finally ushered in the transistor age.

The book starts by looking at the early lives of the three people and explains the condition of the world at that time: quantum theory is just starting to be accepted and research institutions in Europe and America and clamoring for people who understand the new theory.

Then comes World War II and the development of radar which helps to push forward research into high-frequency microwave devices, especially crystals and semiconductor materials. It is here that Brattain and Bardeen make their breakthrough and manage to produce the first transistor that can amplify signals. Shockley was not very pleased and, pursuing his own research, comes out with an alternative type of transistor that eventually will prove to be better (easier to manufacture and control) to that made by Brittain and Bardeen. All three would eventually share the Nobel Prize for their work on semiconductors.

The book does not try to cover up the tensions and animosity that develops between Shockley and Brittain and Bardeen. Eventually, Shockley would leave Bell Labs to set up his own company in what is to become Silicon Valley. He hires people but it turns out that while he is a good researcher, his management skills are not, making people like Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce leave his company to set up their own.

The end of the book covers the invention of the integrated circuit (IC) by Jack Kilby that would usher in the age of the microprocessor and the creation of the modern world.

This is a book to read if you are interested in a history of the transistor and of the people who made it possible. There are some technical details in the book that deal with the theory, construction, development and manufacture of transistors but it helps to clarify the conditions that the researches have to work under to make it all possible.

[Home Page][Index of Reviews][Clone][Darwin: A Life in Science]

Crystal Fire by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson

Crystal Fire
by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson