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Magicians of
Monmouth

Saturday Evening Post
by Shalett, S.

Aug. 23, 1952

pages. 34-35, 58, 62, 64, and 66 

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Evans Laboratory transistor section

 A major advantage is that transistors operate on a fraction of the power required by vacuum tubes.  This effects a tremendous savings in the weight and bulk of the chassis required to house batteries and generators. H. L. Owens, chief, and Dr. Benard Rothlein, physicist, of the Evans Laboratory transistor section, estimated -- “speaking conservatively” -- that transistors will afford an eight-to-one savings in power and will make it possible to design any piece of electronic equipment in one fourth the size of existing devices.  “In fact.” Owens commented, “there is a new type called a junction transistor which can operate on one millionth of a watt of power.  Bell Laboratory engineers have demonstrated this by raising an antenna and drawing enough energy from the atmosphere to make the microscopic transistor register on a meter.  Literally, this device could be operate on the energy generated by a flea on a treadmill.”

 Doctor Rothlein added, “It may be many years before we have transistor radios that run ‘on air,’  but it is entirely reasonable, for instance, to expect immediate development of hearing aids that will require almost no power.”

 Transistors generate virtually no heat, in contrast to tubes, which means that entire transistorized assemblies can be encased in tiny plastic building blocks.  That, in turn, means that these substitutes for fragile vacuum tubes can be hurled to the ground with considerable force or jolted unmercifully without breaking -- an obvious military advantage.


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