RadioBanter - (OT) Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Frank Dresser wrote:
"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
wrote:

[snip]

The transistor was invented in 1947. It took nearly a decade before
it was incorporated into a product because market forces are also
possessed of considerable inertia. And then it was trivial applications
like transistor radios. Production was slow, and rejection and failure
rates were high.

I know I'm sorta nitpicking here, but the transistor we're familiar with,
the junction transistor was invented in 48, but Bell Labs didn't announce it
until 1951. It was first commercially used in hearing aids in 1952.

According to Shockley's papers, 1947.

I'm not familiar with the hearing aid appliction. Again, Shockely's
papers report the first use in 56 or 57, in consumer entertainment
applications.

Not bad for what was intended to be an industrial switch.

Thanks for the tip, though.

http://semiconductormuseum.com/Photo...lery_CK718.htm

However, with mission critical pressures of the space program,
techniques needed to be developed to produce large scale miniaturized
electronics working at frequencies not even considered in terrestrial
applications. Which led to microwave technological innovations on a
grand scale. Driven by lower cost, higher volume, reliable production of
solid state devices, and rapid development of miniaturized computer
driven hardware.

Fuel cell technology had been known since WWII, but had never had a
real application. Practical results in the space program have given us
real world workable fuel cell technologies.

Battery technology developed by orders of magnitude through the space
program.

And medical knowledge has expanded more than a thousand fold through
the space program.

And all that can be said in spades for military technological development.

I used to have an old Radio-Electronics magazine from 1965 or so which
included an article about the upcoming integrated circuit revolution. It
said that 90% of the then current IC production capacity was being used for
military production. It was expected to be 50-50 around 1970 and then
consumer production would explode.

Oh yeah. The technology that came out of WWII for instance fueled
generations of innovation.

The silicon transistor was developed around 1955 and it's early production
was also dominated by the military.

I remember reading that military leaders attempted to corral all
silicon transistor production to keep it out of the hands of general
interests, and our enemies.

The Cold War did wonders for technological evolution.