Clips from the show

How does the vacuum tube work?
It's so easy a monkey could tell you!

How does the field effect transistor work?
Ira Flatow explains.

See a cheese sandwich inspire the invention of the junction transistor.

Walter Brattain gets gain! The invention of the point-contract transistor.

The Tratorious Eight leave Shockley and change the world.

Extra interviews not seen in the show

Gene Anderson talks about the first revolution the transistor brought about,
how he knew the transistor would change the world, and how, despite his intentions, he got sucked into doing vacuum tube research. (3 audio clips)

Robert Brattain tells where his and his brother's mathematical genes
came from, and imagines a world without transistors. (1 audio clip, 1 video clip)

Walter Brown talks about the legacy the transistor has left behind.
PLUS: Walter Brown sings! (1 audio clip, 1 video clip)

Gordon Moore points out the enormous economic implication
that the transistor had on the world. He also recalls a few things about Bill Shockley: he was quite the showman, and he could see electrons! (2 audio clips, 1 video clip)

Harry Sello says that despite constant breakthroughs
in new technology, Silicon Valley hasn't changed. He also considers what Bill Shockley could have been. (1 audio clip, 1 video clip)

Betty Sparks tells what it was like to play golf
with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, what using the telephone was like before transistors, and what an intense typewriter she had to use for Bill Shockley's equations. (2 audio clips, 1 video clip)

Morgan Sparks expands on Bill Shockley's need
for speed, and talks about Bell Labs' philosophy on making the transistor available to everyone. (1 audio clip, 1 video clip)

Joel Shurkin, Bill Shockley's biographer,
talks about the ups and downs of Shockley's life. (3 audio clips)

Walter Brown talks about how Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley
worked together. (1 audio clip)

Kevin Aylesworth talks about his sucess in
recreating the first transistor. (1 audio clip)

Clips from the past

NEWS FLASH! Chet Huntley reporting:
Scientists have created a new amplification device called the transistor. (1 video clip)

Walter Brattain evaluates the team working on
solid state technology and forsees the importance of the transistor. (2 audio clips)

Walter Brattain tells how Shockley tried to keep the patent
all to himself. (1 audio clip)

Bill Shockley tells how a sprained ankle taught him about
the rigidity of bureaucracy. (1 audio clip)

Out-takes

Joel Shurkin is rudely interrupted by "twenty-three tropical birds." (1 video clip)

Morgan Sparks can't get the words out of his mouth. (1 video clip)

Ira Flatow plays with fire. (1 video clip)

Copyright 1999, ScienCentral, Inc, and The American Institute of Physics. No portion of this web site may be reproduced without written permission. NavKnob is a trademark of ScienCentral, Inc. All Rights Reserved.