It was smaller, consumed less energy and was much more durable. The transistor came to replace the vacuum tube in a wide range of devices. “Not long after the war ended, the transistor was developed at Bell Labs, in 1947.” “There was a tremendous push during the war to reduce the size and power consumption of vacuum tubes,” he says, particularly because the receivers used in radio-controlled bombs depended on vacuum tube technology. The research that led to the transistor replacing the vacuum tube was based on work done during World War II, says Harold Wallace, a curator at the museum. Before the Walkman, the iPod or the iPhone, it all started with the introduction of the first commercial transistor radio, currently on display at the American History Museum.
Then, on this day in 1954, the nature of consumer electronics changed forever: listeners could carry around a small device and enjoy their music on the go.
Families sat huddled around a wooden appliance, which used a large amount of energy and was too fragile to be carried around because of the breakable vacuum tubes inside. For the first 50 years after its invention, the radio was essentially a piece of furniture.
