Sharing the Technology: Bell Hosts Transistor Symposia

1951-1952

Bell Labs had an important realization: development of the transistor was going to move a lot more quickly if they opened up the field to other companies.  So in September 1951, Bell Labs hosted a symposium to spread the gospel about what the transistor could do. 

Attending the conference were some 300 scientists and engineers.  The attendees all went home to their respective companies with a great sense of what the transistor could do -- but little idea of how to build one.  For that knowledge, Bell announced, a company would have to pay a licensing fee of $25,000.  Twenty-six companies, from both the US and abroad, signed up for the privilege.  The companies were both big, such as IBM and General Electric, and small, such as then-unknowns like Texas Instruments. 

Over one hundred registrants from the select companies returned for the Transistor Technology Symposium  in April of 1952.  For eight days Bell Labs worked the attendees day and night -- but at the end, they were equipped to go off and build transistors for themselves.  

Bell took all the information from the meeting and bound it into a two volume book set called "Transistor Technology."  The book became fondly known as "Mother Bell's Cookbook." 

Resources: 
-- Crystal Fire by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson  
-- "The Improbable Years," Electronics (19 February 1968) 
-- "They Had Eight Days to Learn About Transistors"

< PREVIOUS Quicktour Page < -- > NEXT Quicktour Page >