FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor’s terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.

Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually construct a working device at that time. The first working device to be built was a point-contact transistor invented in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs. The three shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement. The most widely used type of transistor is the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. Transistors revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things.

Most transistors are made from very pure silicon, and some from germanium, but certain other semiconductor materials are sometimes used. A transistor may have only one kind of charge carrier, in a field-effect transistor, or may have two kinds of charge carriers in bipolar junction transistor devices. Compared with the vacuum tube, transistors are generally smaller and require less power to operate. Certain vacuum tubes have advantages over transistors at very high operating frequencies or high operating voltages. Many types of transistors are made to standardized specifications by multiple manufacturers.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Where does one find a black-tailed deer in the United States?The black-tailed deer, a subspecies of the mule deer, is primarily found in the Pacific Northwest. Stockier than the white-tailed deer, it is mostly yellow to reddish brown in summer, and the upper side of its tail is black.

Advice of the Day

An early winter, a surly winter.

Home Hint of the Day

End-grain wood is tough to plane. Hold the plane firmly on the end grain with the blade (make sure it’s very sharp) at an angle to the board. Work alternately from each side to the middle, or you may chip one side when you’re pushing out on it.

Word of the Day

NevadaMeans “snowcapped” in Spanish

Puzzle of the Day

What do we often return but never borrow?Thanks

Born

• Axel Fredrik Cronstedt (Swedish scientist) – 1722
• Joseph Smith (religious leader; organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) – 1805
• Madam C. J. Walker (entrepreneur, philanthropist, social activist) – 1867
• Robert Bly (poet) – 1926
• Eddie Vedder (musician) – 1964

Died

• Jack Webb (actor) – 1982
• Marjorie Child Husted (home economist, helped create Betty Crocker) – 1986
• Victor Borge (comedian & pianist) – 2000

Events

• Saturn’s moon Rhea discovered– 1672
• George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, with no inkling that he would be drafted to President 6 years later– 1783
• A Visit From St. Nicholas, attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, first published– 1823
• Part of Vincent Van Gogh’s left ear was cut off– 1888
• Reginald Fessenden became the first person to transmit voice over a wireless radio– 1900
• Transistor first demonstrated– 1947
• Jeanne Sauvé was appointed governor-general of Canada– 1983
• U.S. pilots, Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, landed the experimental aircraft Voyager in California after a record 9-day 4-minute nonstop flight around the world without refueling– 1986

Weather

• Ships were lost in a storm on Long Island Sound– 1811
• Strong northerly winds generated a windchill of -100 degrees F in North Dakota– 1983
• Williston, North Dakota, recorded a temperature of -50 degrees F– 1983
• 9.6 inches of snow fell in Wilmington, North Carolina– 1989

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