[cctalk] Re: Experience using an Altair 8800 ("Personal computer" from 70s)

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On May 24, 2024, at 1:26 PM, Chuck Guzis <ccl...@sydex.com> wrote:
> 
> On 5/24/24 09:52, Paul Koning wrote:
> 
>> 
>> I once ran into a pre-WW2 data sheet (or ad?) for a transistor, indeed an 
>> FET that used selenium as the semiconducting material.  Most likely that was 
>> the Lilienfeld device.
> 
> Could also have been a device from Oskar Heil in the 1930s.

No idea.  I vaguely remember that it was French.  It was in a pile of papers in 
my father's office -- long since lost, unfortunately.

> What really made the difference in the case of transistors of any
> stripe, was the adoption of zone refining: (1951) William Gardner Pfann.
> Pfann knew Shockley and devised one of the early point-contact
> transistors, from a 1N26 diode. Zone-refining removed one of the
> bugaboos that plagued early semiconductor research--that of getting
> extremely pure material.
> 
> Pfann was a quiet, shy individual which perhaps explains why he doesn't
> get the historical applause.
> 
> Something akin to the Tesla-Steinmetz treatment.

I also remember the name Czochralski -- creator of the process that produces 
single crystals from which the wafers are sliced.

        paul