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  • Re: Electronics Magazine

    From quadi@quadibloc@ca.invalid to comp.arch on Fri Mar 27 13:07:29 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.arch

    On Thu, 08 Jan 2026 02:19:58 -0500, EricP wrote:

    There's also an article on PDF page 72 introducing...

    The TRANSISTOR - A Crystal Triode

    "Germanium crystal with two cat-whisker contacts has characteristics of grounded-grid triode amplifier, provides 20 db gain, 25 milliwatts
    output at frequencies up to 10 megacycles."

    They predict it will replace vacuum tubes in many applications but I
    remain sceptical.

    Undoubtedly, you were joking, since this replacement has now already
    occurred since the publication of that magazine.

    Even point-contact bipolar transistors did replace vacuum tubes in many applications, although more easily manufactured transistor designs lowered
    the price of transistors enough to permit transistors to replace vacuum
    tubes in many more applications, particularly in consumer electronics.

    And the field-effect transistor allowed vacuum tubes to be replaced in
    some applications where the fact that bipolar transistors were current
    devices while vacuum tubes were voltage devices was a problem.

    Of course, now the discrete transistor is all but obsolete, and integrated circuits have taken over, containing from a few to a few billion
    transistors each!

    John Savard

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  • From quadi@quadibloc@ca.invalid to comp.arch on Fri Mar 27 13:11:06 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.arch

    On Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:11:34 +0100, Terje Mathisen wrote:

    We obviously cannot breed enough cats to be able to collect all those wiskers!

    Fortunately, the transistor revolution wasn't slowed by that issue. This
    was for the simple reason that the term "cat's whisker", as used in the article, was a colloquialism for a thin wire of a conductive metal, such
    as copper, such as was used to make a rectifying contact with a galena
    (lead sulphide) crystal in a crystal radio - as opposed to the ohmic
    contact that is made with the crystal by the framework holding it in place including the screws that are tightened once it is in position.

    So no actual cat's whiskers were used, and thus no actual cats were hurt.

    John Savard
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  • From John Levine@johnl@taugh.com to comp.arch on Fri Mar 27 18:22:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.arch

    According to quadi <quadibloc@ca.invalid>:
    On Thu, 08 Jan 2026 02:19:58 -0500, EricP wrote:

    There's also an article on PDF page 72 introducing...

    The TRANSISTOR - A Crystal Triode

    "Germanium crystal with two cat-whisker contacts has characteristics of
    grounded-grid triode amplifier, provides 20 db gain, 25 milliwatts
    output at frequencies up to 10 megacycles."

    They predict it will replace vacuum tubes in many applications but I
    remain sceptical.

    Undoubtedly, you were joking, since this replacement has now already >occurred since the publication of that magazine. ...

    Well, gee, he posted that message two months ago.
    --
    Regards,
    John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
    Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
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