Transistor Museum Oral History Ralph Greenburg "Flub-a-Dub" Page 3

EARLY TRANSISTOR HISTORY AT MOTOROLA

“FLUB-A-DUB” by Ralph Greenburg

So now what Application Engineer? You had helped win the electronics world over to solid state, what else remained. The answer was --”White Goods”. The very large market of Laundry and Kitchen appliances had never seen vacuum tubes or any form of electronic controls. Every product was total electrical or electromechanical or gas operated. Gotta be a market opportunity there!

At that time I was department manager of Consumer- Industrial Applications and was directed to devote resources to investigate how to help the electromechanical designers convert to Solid State controls. Well it wasn’t very successful; despite engineering exchange programs with Whirlpool and all sorts of attempts at putting solid state defrost controls into refrigerators, etc. We even investigated touch controls for the new glass surface stove tops that Corning had developed. Most of the ideas lacked the proper “functional worth” to cause the appliance manufactures to change their ways.

However, there was one idea that looked like a possible winner. This was a power motor control circuit that would greatly simplify the very complicated electromechanical array of levers, relays, gears etc. that causes the agitator in a washing machine to swish back and forth. Reuben Wechsler came up with a circuit which allowed the motor connected to the agitator to turn first one way then reverse in a slow cyclical fashion, essentially a direct drive oscillator. In conjunction with a simple clutch and gear arrangement the motor could be switched to fast speed in one direction to put the tub into the spin dry mode.

Of course the circuit needed a name and could have been called “Splish-Splash”, but Reuben liked “Flub-a-Dub”, since this is what he heard when the agitator was engaged. Everybody in marketing and upper management loved the “Flub-a-Dub”. This was going to be THE break through which would put solid-state devices into the appliance market.

A major effort was planned with an Appliance manufacture, cumulating in a visit by one and all to get them to think Motorola Semiconductors. The SPS General Manager started the talks explaining how almost everyone was participating in the Solid State Revolution, followed by Marketing and Sales people discussing what Motorola SPS had to offer. And lastly, yours truly, did a technical pitch complete with a demonstration of the beloved “Flub-a-Dub”.

Go To Greenburg “Flub-a-Dub”, Page 4

A Transistor Museum™ History of Transistors Publication

PAGE 3