If you're asked who invented the transistor, the name that probably comes immediately to mind is William Shockley. In fact, the real story of the landmark invention that led to the computer era and, not incidentally, the founding of Silicon Valley, is far more complicated.
In Crystal Fire, Michael Riordan, a Santa Cruz writer and physicist ("Hunting of the Quark," "The Day after Midnight") and University of Illinois historian Lillian Hoddeson deploy their skills to untangle this fascinating history. Their very readable account describes the technical issues surrounding the transistor's creation and the colorful characters involved. . . .
Indeed, a reader of this fine book might well wonder if any contemporary corporate entity would bet the huge sums required on such a longshot technological gamble.
- -San Francisco Chronicle; 17 August, 1997
Other reviews
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery at Bell Laboratories of transistor action in germanium. Crystal Fire recounts the history of this epoch-making discovery and subsequent events that led to the dawning of the information age. Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson provide a gripping account not only of the transistor discovery but also of the birth of solid-state physics, with its intimate relationships to quantum mechanics and to the world of technology. The book provides insightful analysis of the coupling of research and application as well as the human relationships and the inner workings of one of the world's greatest industrial laboratories.
The early chapters of the book give an eminently readable account of the quantum mechanical foundations of solid-state physics. The authors also trace the more detailed and pragmatic efforts at AT&T to develop vacuum-tube amplifiers for long-distance communication. These efforts were successful enough to convince AT&T brass that hiring PhD physicists to work on problems relating to communications technology was good business! By the mid-1930s, with Bell Labs' research director Mervin Kelly convinced that the behavior of electrons in solid-state materials and an understanding of modern quantum physics might be important in replacing bulky vacuum tubes, Kelly hired William Shockley, who had recently obtained his PhD at MIT.
The implementation of Kelly's vision of replacing mechanical switches with electronic ones to connect telephone subscribers in the Bell system was interrupted by World War II; with MIT's Radiation Laboratory, Bell Labs became a major player in microwave radar development during the war. Major efforts in purification of silicon and germanium led to the development of high-quality crystal rectifiers and microwave radar.
By the time the war ended, Kelly was firmly convinced that AT&T needed to be at the forefront of solid-state physics research, and he asked Shockley to head the work. To bolster the effort, Shockley suggested to Kelly that a theorist of outstanding credentials needed to be added. And so John Bardeen, who had been working during the war at the Naval Ordnance Lab, and with whom Shockley had interacted during his stay at MIT, was recruited by Kelly and offered a position in the solid-state physics group. Walter Brattain, an experimentalist who had joined Bell Labs many years earlier and who worked under Clinton Davisson, was also part of the group, as were physical chemist Robert Gibney and electronics expert Bert Moore.
Riordan and Hoddeson give an insightful and thorough treatment of the history surrounding the 1947 discovery of transistor action in germanium using point contacts and in pen junctions three years later. They also provide a fascinating account of the years immediately following the transistor discovery, a time when the Korean War was raging and a looming antitrust action against AT&T provided conflicting scenarios for the dissemination of critical materials technologies for both military and commercial communication purposes.
At a transistor symposium in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in 1952, Bell Labs disclosed key materials breakthroughs that had been made in the fabrication of junction transistors. At about the same time, the US Air Force drafted Bell Labs' expertise to develop a network of early-warning radar stations. The cold-war arms race with the Soviet Union had begun, and the fledgling semiconductor industry was destined to be backed by the US government at a pace that was further accelerated by the launch of Sputnik and the subsequent space race with the Soviet Union.
Riordan and Hoddeson offer much insight into the personal workings of great scientists and inventors. Even as major breakthroughs were occurring in the 1950s, they recount, Bardeen, excluded from subsequent work by the increasingly touchy and difficult Shockley, had begun work on superconductivity, ultimately leaving to join Frederick Seitz at the University of Illinois in the summer of 1951. Further, Shockley himself became increasingly disenchanted with Bell Labs when he was passed over and Jim Fisk appointed as director of research. Shockley teamed up with fellow Caltech graduate Arnold Beckman to form Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, in Palo Alto, California, in 1956. Shockley Semiconductor soon recruited such outstanding scientists as Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. But even though Shockley thus proved himself again to be a prodigious recruiter of talent, he was unable to manage the creative talent he had brought together with Beckman's backing. A group of eight, led by Moore and Noyce, resigned in September 1957 to form their own company, backed by Fairchild Camera and Instruments.
Silicon Valley owes a significant portion of its genesis to Shockley Semiconductor, and Shockley has been referred to as the "Moses of Silicon Valley" by his longtime friend Seitz. But Shockley himself profited little from his efforts.
Crystal Fire provides a remarkable look into these highlights--and much more--of the story not only of one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century but of the birth of the information age. It is a must-read for every solid-state physicist, device engineer and materials scientist, as well as for those interested in the intimate coupling of fundamental science with application.
- -Venkatesh Narayanamurti; Physics Today, Apr 98, Vol. 51 Issue 4, p64
For a quarter of a century, Lillian Hoddeson, a physicist, has collected background material on the history of solid-state physics, both basic and applied, carrying out taped interviews with many of the most creatively active scientists, and studying the available literature, including archival files. One of the many by-products of this endeavour has been the multi-authored book "Out of the Crystal Maze" (Oxford University Press, 1992), of which Hoddeson was co-editor and leading catalyst.
Early in this decade, and in recognition of the fact that 1997 would be the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the transistor, she joined with Michael Riordan, another physicist with a comparable interest in science history, to produce this lively account of the invention, with much emphasis on events that preceded and followed it. The background, personalities and actions of the principal actors are given ample coverage. . . .
The text is rich in anecdote, presenting the reader with colourful views of many of the secondary as well as the primary figures involved. Backgrounds, hopes and destinies are examined. Matters such as Shockley's gradual change in personality as he became a celebrity, and the changes in the working atmosphere which made Bardeen decide to return to an academic career, are dealt with in a forthright manner.
Although the book is written in a semi-popular style which should appeal to the type of general reader interested in the history of technology, the historical research on which it is based is impeccably sound, unlike many books of this kind. The authors, with their professional reputations involved, have left no stone unturned in making their work an enduring classic.
- -Nature, 24 July 1997