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Glenn Zorpette
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How the First Transistor Worked
Even its inventors didn’t fully understand the point-contact transistor.
by
Glenn Zorpette
via
IEEE Spectrum
on
November 20, 2022
![A 1955 AT&T publicity photo shows [in palm, from left] a phototransistor, a junction transistor, and a point-contact transistor.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.bunkhistory.org/derivatives/rectangle_small/images/2022-12-15/$2y$10$ndxGZLD3gEmAVEMeiqLsP.5Jtc9.ZHrPBDytrNk.Ci.r9bUFzmDUG/a-phot-of-an-outstretc.png)