> I believe 1st semiconductors were a science experiment. I'm pretty sure the transistor [1] was invented specifically to solve a real engineering problem. [1

> I believe 1st semiconductors were a science experiment. I'm pretty sure the transistor [1] was invented specifically to solve a real engineering problem. [1] I'm taking your use of "semiconductor" to mean transistor because my understanding is semiconductors are a kind of material that was discovered, not invented.