The fundamental difference between Lilienfeld and Shockley is that Lilienfeld didn't or wasn't able to even build a prototype. [0] "Sadly, Lilienfeld does not

The fundamental difference between Lilienfeld and Shockley is that Lilienfeld didn't or wasn't able to even build a prototype. [0] "Sadly, Lilienfeld does not appear to have ever built a working prototype of his device; indeed, there’s no evidence that he ever even tried. He also never published any of his work other than as patent applications, so the world would remain ignorant of his insights for another two decades, when Bell Labs started working on what would become the transistor. " While Lilienfeld had probably given some inspiration or ideas to Shockley, it took actual implementation before it could be turned into product reality. So no, it wasn't 20 years between invention and application. Rather it took 20 years before someone actually put that theory into practical use. And once it was turned into practical use, industry commercialization followed rapidly. It didn't take 20 years after the Bell Labs' implementation for first applications to work. So it's worth asking what is different here. If people are building prototypes and small scale implementations, what is truly getting in the way of commercialization? [0] https://hackaday.com/2018/12/11/julius-lilienfeld-and-the-first-transistor/ https://hackaday.com/2018/12/11/julius-lilienfeld-and-the-fi...