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I agree. A classic example is the story of the semiconductor and radio. The popular history said that the point-contact transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell

I agree. A classic example is the story of the semiconductor and radio. The popular history said that the point-contact transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell Labs and started the age of semiconductors. But do you know that Russian physicist Oleg Losev (also a pioneer of LED) discovered negative resistance in zinc-oxide diodes in 1923, and built solid-state amplifiers, oscillators, regenerative and superheterodyne radio receivers, 25 years before the transistor, but starved to death in the hunger during Nazi Germany's invasion and forgotten? And do you know that at the same year, 1923, American physicist J. Edgar Lilienfeld (also a pioneer of electrolytic capacitor), invented the first prototype of the Field-Effect Transistor, but due to technical limitations and his failure to publizie his researches in big-name journals, remained unknown for a long time? At the end of the day, I think some simplification and ignorance is acceptable in entry-level/popular history books, but in more advanced-level history books, all the known co-inventors/co-discoverers who have made contributions deserve a mention. Wikipedia has a good "list of multiple discoveries". * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_discoveries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_discoveries

wbl 7y ago
Negative resistance devices are very tricky to use since you need a non reciprocal element. Bell created a design that was commercially useful and widely applicable and later iterations (contact, planar BJT) cam from it.
- segfaultbuserr 7y ago
  > Negative resistance devices are very tricky to use Sure... I'm not an engineer, but I read that tunnel diodes were hailed as the greatest innovation in semiconductor of the 1960s, and it was often the only available option in high-frequency applications, but they were almost completely abandoned when integrated circuits became feasible. Leaving the embarrassing situation that the tunnel diodes in lot of vintage Tektronix oscilloscopes are unobtainium. > Bell created a design that was commercially useful and widely applicable This is kind of the point made by the original comment. Arguing about the "first" sometimes is a waste of time, it's better to list all the codiscoverers and discuss their respective contributions.

wbl 7y ago

Negative resistance devices are very tricky to use since you need a non reciprocal element. Bell created a design that was commercially useful and widely applicable and later iterations (contact, planar BJT) cam from it.

segfaultbuserr 7y ago
> Negative resistance devices are very tricky to use Sure... I'm not an engineer, but I read that tunnel diodes were hailed as the greatest innovation in semiconductor of the 1960s, and it was often the only available option in high-frequency applications, but they were almost completely abandoned when integrated circuits became feasible. Leaving the embarrassing situation that the tunnel diodes in lot of vintage Tektronix oscilloscopes are unobtainium. > Bell created a design that was commercially useful and widely applicable This is kind of the point made by the original comment. Arguing about the "first" sometimes is a waste of time, it's better to list all the codiscoverers and discuss their respective contributions.