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Oral History – Carl David Todd (Continued)
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I was familiar with the 1N34
germanium diode in a ceramic case, and had dissected several of these and
studied them with the microscope in the biology department at school.
I saw the similarity between the 1N34 and the transistor, and figured all I
had to do was add another cat whisker, very close to the original
anode. Keep in mind that I had no micro-positioners or similar
tools. I needed a stiff wire with a very thin insulation
coating. Hey, I had seen that very thing when I broke open a 1U4
vacuum tube. The filament was a fine wire coated with a very thin
ceramic.
I tried just sliding the
wire down along the other whisker, but what would hold it in place while I
adjusted the supply voltages and made measurements? Ah, yes, I had
seen what had happened when a capacitor was charged up with a high voltage
and suddenly discharged. The wire would stick, being weakly spot
welded by the spark. I would just charge up the capacitor placed in
shunt with the new whisker and cathode, and manually slide the ceramic
along the anode whisker until it made contact and sparked. It stuck!
I rigged up some basic test circuits and was able to see that it was
working - poorly, but working!
My freshman year in college was
supported by working 50 hours or more per week while taking a full load
with as much overload as they would allow. My goal was to save up enough
money to be able to go to Auburn, then known as Alabama Polytechnic
Institute, and study Electrical Engineering.
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Oral History – Carl David Todd (Continued)
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While at Auburn, I had the
opportunity to get a job with the Auburn Research Foundation where I helped
design, build, and test several computers for a top secret computer project
with the Air Force. As I was wiring
up all the filaments for a module, I could not help but think, "The
future computers will use transistors, and they have no filaments to
wire!"
I learned that Western
Electric was selling some WE1698 point contact transistors to
"developers" so I sent off a money order for six of them at about
$30.00 each (as I remember.) They
were somewhat reticent about selling their transistors to a student, but
they finally relented. When they
arrived, I quickly hooked them up to some special test circuits and learned
that three of the six were DOA. In
my experimentation, I learned just how cantankerous these devices could
be. I wished for some of the new
junction transistors which were more stable.
My wish was answered when
Raytheon offered the CK722, so it was off to Columbus, Georgia, the closest
parts distributor, where I purchased a few. Oh, these were so nice to use!
Go
To Todd Oral History, Page 3
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