The ThinkQuest site
Trailing the Transistor
provides comprehensive information on transistor technology and history at both basic and advanced level.
In my opinion, the best historical information about the transistor is to be found on the
pbssite
. This is a non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the US public television stations.
Bell Laboratories, the home of the transistor, is now part of Lucent Technology. It has a
website
that no longer seems to describe the discovery of the transistor.
I'm frequently asked "what type is transistor XYZ" or "what modern type could be substituted for XYZ". Sadly, I often cannot answer
because devices in commercial equipment often bore only internal part numbers which were never made public. However,
for public part numbers the Web has several sites that document both modern and obsolete types. In my opinion the best of these is
datasheetarchive which has a wealth of ever-increasing data, and is even
scanning old data books and using them to add vintage devices.
If you are desperate, for devices from several standard series, the
part number
itself gives information about the type of device.
A friend of mine, Jack Ward, has a Web site devoted entirely to the CK722.
It contains a lot of images and information, some of it quite surprising, for example the "transistor within a transistor". He has also developed an
extensive
online museum of early transistors
with many fascinating images and oral histories from people involved in the early industry.
Another afficionado, Bob McGarrah, has a
great site
showing many historic devices and fascinating early advertisements and other material.
Wumpus Old Radio World
includes very interesting information on old German transistors amongst other historic information.
Sergei Frolov has a site showing early
Soviet Union transistors
and diodes. A good excuse to try automatic translation, from
babelfish
amongst others.
Mike's Electric Stuff
shows old advertisements, including some of the first UK transistors and diodes. (Plus loads of other neat and
dangerous electric experiments!)
There are so many sites that deal with early transistor radios that it is hard to list any without being unfair to the others, and
anyway that is not the subject of my own particular obsession. However, I must mention the extravagant
Enrico Tedeschi's
fascinating site, the magnificent
Radio Wallah
collection, and the comprehensive
Childhood Radios
site. All three have lists of links to many other sites.
Also, Brian Page's
"gladly learn"
site has a page on amateur radio that includes scans of classic early transistor booklets by Raytheon and Sylvania.
In the UK, Pete Roberts offers a
specialist repair service
for classic transistor radios from the funky Fifties, the
swinging Sixties as well as the sexy Seventies! All types fixed,
especially those fabulous pocket trannies we also used to listen to Luxy
208 under the pillow.
If you are interested in robotics for combat, academic study or just fun, check out
futurebots
whose owner Dan has been serving robotic and electronic technology since 1985. He sells chips, robot parts, and even PC parts.
