Rudi Herzog Early History of Transistors in Germany Page 3

Transistor Museum Lecture Hall

“The Early History of Transistors in Germany”

Rudi Herzog (Continued)

In November 1953 the following transistors were available for commercial use only (all point-contact-transistors ) :

GSN1 and GSN2 from the INTERMETALL. .

GT10, GT20 and GT30 from the Dr. Rost Labs.

VS200, VS220 and VS221 from S.A.F. Co.

TS13 and TS33 from SIEMENS Co. The SIEMENS devices were cartridge cases. It seems quite possible that they never produced any point-contact devices on their own (like TELEFUNKEN) but instead sold US transistors that had been “re-labeled“ to their types TS13 and TS33. They looked like the early cartridges from Western Electric. These SIEMENS devices never appeared in German literature as a photo but only as a drawing.

TELEFUNKEN never presented any transistor devices to the public until the end of 1953 as well. However, some point-contact samples have shown up from former employees which took these as a souvenir.

This is a GSN1 point contact transistor from 1953. It is quite rare and is described above by Rudi.

Text Box:

Rudi Herzog (Continued)

The two photos above illustrate (1) a drawing of a Siemens unit and (2) Actual samples of Telefunken units. Refer to the discussion of these point contact transistors by Rudi in the text.

1954

In 1954 the transition from point-contact-transistors to the junction-transistors took place. In March SIEMENS Co. delivered TS13 and TS33 point-contact-transistors for commercial uses to a few German electronic companies. These devices never appeared on retail sale. VALVO very late announced the OC50 and OC51 point-contact types. These devices were manufactured by Mullard as well, so may be they were Mullard transistors.
As it was a cartridge type too, maybe it was a “re-labeled“ US device, like the TS13 and TS33 from SIEMENS.

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