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"I have been an avid vintage radio, vacuum tube
and light bulb collector for over 15 years and have also greatly enjoyed
the history and research that can accompany those hobbies (ala:
'Knight's List' - "A Bibliography of Known Wireless Books, 1892 -
1922"). While always exploring new fields of electrical research
I developed a growing interest in early semiconductor history and
transistor products - stuff most radio collectors turned up their noses
to. As time went along I began to focus more and more on this field
of endeavor and was fortunate in acquiring a few significant collections
(accumulations?) of early transistor products over the last few years.
These complemented each other enough and expanded the on-hand known variety
of devices to a point where it allowed me to put together this one large,
but sometimes sketchy, presentation on the different manufacturers’ early
work on Power Transistors. (I ask for their indulgence and
understanding for any liberties I may have taken in trying to interpret or
speculate on the research and marketing decisions they may or may not have
made way back then.)
As a matter of clarification, I generally classify a
true Power Transistor as something over 1/3 of a watt of output. This
seemed to be a performance barrier that most early manufacturers could not
exceed given the semiconductor technology of the small signal enclosure
types of the early and mid fifties.
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