The Transistron

THE TRANSISTRON TRIODE TYPE P.T.T. 601

BY

R. SUEUR

Chief Engineer P.T.T.

Head of the Department of Service des Recherches et du Contrôle Techniques P.T.T.

Translation into English Copyright Mark P D Burgess March 2011

This paper published in Volume 29 of L'Onde Electrique is the only early scientific publication on the Transistron. It was authored by René Sueur of Service des Recherches et du Contrôle Techniques (SRCT) of PTT which sponsored the work on the Transistron at CFS Westinghouse. Original reference is Sueur R 1949 Le Transistron Triode Type PTT 601 L'Onde Electrique 29: 389-397

The document can be downloaded from the attachment icon below.

TRANSISTRON = TRANSISTOR + ?

This is an English translation of the original article by E Aisberg which appeared in the July-August edition of Toute la Radio bringing the news of the development of the Transistron that was announced on 18th May 1949.

The document can be downloaded from the attachment icon below.

NOTES ON THE AMPLIFICATION OBSERVED IN SEMICONDUCTORS

(Phenomena of transistance)

BY

H. F. MATARE

Laboratoire Cie des Freins et Signaux Westinghouse

To enable a quantitative assessment of the phenomenon of transistance, a set of comparative measurements on two mechanically identical devices are presented: the "transistron” shows the phenomenon of amplification and the other, the "non-transistron,” shows no amplification.

The document can be downloaded from the attachment icon below. It was originally published as MATARE REMARQUES CONCERNANT L'AMPLIFICATION OBSERVÉE SUR DES SEMI-CONDUCTEURS (Phénomènes de transistance) L'Onde Electrique November 1950 p469-475

The Uses and Limits of Theory: From Radar Research to the Invention

of the Transistor

Kai Handel

Institute for History of Technology, Technical University Aachen (Germany)

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society at Kansas City

(Missouri), 21-25 October, 1998

This paper by Dr Kai Handel documents the development of semiconductors as radar detectors during WW2 in Germany and the work of Heinrich Welker including a design of a field effect transistor in 1945. He presents evidence that the collaboration of Welker and Mataré was frustrated by reliance on the Mott-Schottky theory to describe solid state devices. [Paper courtesy Dr Handel. This paper is based on research conducted for his PhD dissertation Anfänge der Halbleiterforschung und -entwicklung available at Scribd.com ]

Christian Adam February 2011 (Colmar, France) with translation in collaboration with Mark Burgess

Christian Adam is a member of Club Histoire et Collection Radio and Radiomuseum and plays a leading role in both organisations. He moderates several fora on the history of French semiconductors for Radiomuseum and has written several articles on the same subject.

An earlier version of this article has been published in French and this English version is intended to make the fascinating early history of CFS Westinghouse and the first French transistor, the Transistron, more accessible to English readers.

The history of the major French semiconductor producers in the 1950s: Compagnie Générale de télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF), Laboratoire Central de Télécommunications (LCT), La Radiotechnique and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) can be found here.

TRANSISTOR AND TRANSISTRON

by H. ABERDAM

Alumnus of l'École Polytechnique

English translation copyright Mark P D Burgess April 2011

This article, previously unknown to collectors and historians, was found by Christian Adam and is the first technical article published on the advent of the Transistron. M Adam has kindly provided it to me and I am most grateful for this and his agreement to make this English translation available. It was originally published as Aberdam A Transistor et Transistron Ingenieurs et Techniciens No 12 Juin 1949

BBC Interviews of Herbert Mataré

Additional video from Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity told by Professor Jim Al-Khalili. Directed by Alex Freeman. In these two short videos Mataré talks about his semiconductors research in Germany and France. Videos hosted by BBC.