On 5/24/24 09:52, Paul Koning wrote: > > I once ran into a pre-WW2 data sheet (or ad?) for a transistor, indeed an FET > that used selenium as the semiconducting material. Most likely that was the > Lilienfeld device.
Could also have been a device from Oskar Heil in the 1930s. What really made the difference in the case of transistors of any stripe, was the adoption of zone refining: (1951) William Gardner Pfann. Pfann knew Shockley and devised one of the early point-contact transistors, from a 1N26 diode. Zone-refining removed one of the bugaboos that plagued early semiconductor research--that of getting extremely pure material. Pfann was a quiet, shy individual which perhaps explains why he doesn't get the historical applause. Something akin to the Tesla-Steinmetz treatment. --Chuck
