Fundamentally, transistors serve two functions. The first –and what it’s most widely known for– is their ability to act as an on and off switch in a circuit. This allows one to control when and where current should be flowing –and once enough transistors have been put together you can even perform calculations using boolean logic. This is the foundation of what allows silicon to think. Secondly, transistors can also amplify signals. This simply means that they can grab an electronic signal and change its current and or voltage, depending on what is needed. (Technically they only allow more current/voltage to flow.)
A slightly more technical look at them:
Transistors are composed of three basic components:
The Collector: Where current starts, or “collects”.
The Base: What turns the transistor on or off, it’s a sort of “gate” if you will.
The Emitter: Where current flows to, or is “emitted”.
As mentioned before, transistors can be on and off switches in a circuit, however they aren't exactly like a normal switch. This is because unlike a physical switch that stays either on or off, a transistor’s default is off, so the moment the electricity is shut off all the transistors revert to their default state. As explained in my previous article, hard drives get around this with floating gates. However, it should also be noted that transistors are more like gradients. The amount of current at the base actually determines how much current flows from the collector to the emitter. This allows transistors to not just let current pass or not pass, but actually modify or amplify the strength of that signal.
Something fun to know is the existence of vacuum tubes (pictured below). The invention of the vacuum tube only preceded that of the transistor’s by a couple decades, and was basically its predecessor. They served a similar function to transistors, which was to control electrical currents. They were the foundation of electronics for the first half of the 20th century, before they were phased out in favor of transistors. This article won't get into the specifics of how they worked, but the primary reasons they were replaced was that they were comparatively warm (as they needed heat to work), large, and unreliable.
How transistors fit into Whitman’s history:
It all starts –if you would be so inclined as to look at it from a very Whitman-centric way– with Professor Benjamin H. Brown (pictured on the left, picture taken from Arminda). Whitman was very different back in 1895 when Professor Brown started teaching. Initially Professor Brown taught the entirety of the Sciences, as it was just one single department. As the College grew Professor Brown restricted himself to teaching Physics and some select electives in Astronomy and Geology. The College also didn’t have nearly as many funds as it does today, so all of the equipment he used in his demonstrations in-class were built by him. (Two examples included a bicycle wheel refurbished to have a lead tire –so as to show the weight of gyroscopic action– and a hyper-sensitive apparatus that could measure the weight of the Earth.) A Professorship in Physics here at Whitman was founded in his honor in 1957.
Eventually would come the class of 1924, from which would spring what President Skotheim called “The Four Horsemen of the Class of 1924”. These four horsemen were Walker Bleakney, Vladimir Rojansky, E. John Workman, and finally Walter H. Brattain [pictured below]: the reason this article was written.
Walter Brattain was already interested in physics when he came to Whitman, but it was under Professor Brown that his interest really solidified. It was actually from Brown that Brattain first became aware of Telephone Bell Laboratories, the company where he would eventually research and invent the transistor. Of course he didn’t single-handedly invent the transistor, but rather did so with a team of 2 other physicists: John Bardeen, and William Shockley. All three were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel prize in physics.
Upon receiving news of having received the Nobel Prize, Brattain said, “I certainly appreciate the honor. It is a great satisfaction to have done something in life and to have been recognized for it in this way. However, much of my good fortune comes from being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right sort of people to work with.”
Transistors would go on to act as the foundations of integrated circuits, which is the basis of all electronics today.
Fun Fact 1: Brattain’s mom was baptized by Whitman College founder, Cushing Eells. Fun Fact 2: Brattain's Nobel Prize is in the archives! You can even hold it if you want.
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