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For Sale: Museum Quality, Bell Labs Type A Transistor from 1st Production Run, 1948

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  • For Sale: Museum Quality, Bell Labs Type A Transistor from 1st Production Run, 1948

    Location: New Jersey

    Description: Own a very important piece of technological history. The transistor revolutionized the way that electronic systems were implemented by providing amplification device miniaturization and electrical efficiency (no heated filament was required). This is a Bell Labs Type A Transistor from the 1st production run of transistors made in 1948. This item is extremely rare and only a very few are known to exist (the Smithsonian supposedly has one of these). Prior to the invention of the Transistor, electronic systems relied on large and inefficient electron tubes (or valves).

    I came to own this transistor by way of my friendship with Mr. Wilson Norwood, who, as an engineer, worked with these early transistors, developing practical applications for them at Bell Labs. I got to know Wilson because of my interest in Antique Radio and via the Antique Wireless Association back in the mid 1980's. Wilson worked at Bell Labs with such folks as W. Shockley, W. Brattain, and J. Bardeen (the inventors of the Bipolar Junction Transistor, designated as the "Type A Transistor" for the first production run).

    Wilson lived in the town next to ours at that time. He lived in Caldwell NJ while we lived just east in a town called Verona NJ. He came numerous times to our home (and visa versa) to chat about the early pioneer days of electronics.

    One day, he brought me a Type A transistor and wrote a note authenticating the gift. You see, each of the first production run transistors was serialized in India Ink on the side of the cylinderical case. He documented the gift and cited the serial number associated with the device (written with India ink on it's side - all first run Bell Labs Type A transistors were serialized).

    I am offering this item for sale along with the following ancillary items to go with it:

    - Signed Documentation Authenticating the Device
    - Original Cassette Tape Recording made as he was giving me the device which includes a description of the Type A and his involvement with it
    - Photostat copy of a Bell Labs Memo Titled "A Cathode Ray Curve Tracer for Transistors", (6-6-1949) including Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley on the distribution list.
    - Photostat copy of an article in the Bell Laboratories Record titled "The Type-A Transistor" (R.M. Ryder, Electronic Apparatus Development) March, 1949
    - Photostat copy of an article in the Bell Laboratories Record titled "The Transistor" Vol XXVI No. 8, 8- 8-1948
    - Holiday Card from Wilson, December 1987
    - Video of Wilson Norwood describing his first job at Adams Morgan (Paragon) Radio in Upper Montclair, NJ circa 1924. Video was made insitu circa 1985

    Price: $50,000.00 (US funds)

    Terms: Check or Bank Transfer, As Is

    Contact: Craig Maier - dctools@aol.com or craig@diamondcut.com
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Craig Maier; 12-27-2018, 06:33 PM.
    "Who put orange juice in my orange juice?" - - - William Claude Dukenfield
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