Invention of the solid‐state amplifier

FEB 01, 1964

In the light of US patent records, amplifying devices having the basic characteristics of the modern transistor appear to have been designed and used more than a generation ago by an unsung physicist whose death was reported last year. The author of this article, Virgil E. Bottom, is professor of physics and chairman of the Departments of Physics and Mathematics at McMurry College in Abilene, Texas. From 1953 to 1958 he was director of research of the Motorola Semiconductor Division in Phoenix, where he was in charge of the development of the first transistors used in automobile radios.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3051405

Virgil E. Bottom

The obituary column of a recent issue of Physics Today carried the announcement of the death of Julius E. Lilienfeld at his home in the Virgin Islands. Dr. Lilienfeld was a native of Poland, formerly a professor of physics at the University of Leipzig, and became a United States citizen in 1935. The announcement of the passing of Dr. Lilienfeld recalled to mind an experience which the author had in 1953 when he was engaged in a patent search in connection with the development of the germanium transistor. The patent search disclosed three patents granted in the years 1930, 1932, and 1935, respectively, to Julius Edgar Lilienfeld of Brooklyn and Cedarhurst, New York. The attorney who prepared the patent was Fred’k F. Schuets. A brief inquiry failed to locate either the inventor or his attorney and, inasmuch as the patents had already lapsed, the matter was dropped.

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References

1. Physics Today, November 1963, p. 104.
2. U.S. Patent, 1 745 175; filed October 8, 1926; granted Janurary 28, 1930.
3. U.S. Patent, 1 877 140, filed December 8, 1928; granted September 13, 1932.
4. U.S. Patent, 1 900 018, filed March 28, 1928; granted March 7, 1933.

More about the authors

Virgil E. Bottom, McMurry College, Abilene, Texas.