The Mighty Mite

The newest wonder in U.S. industry is the transistor, a sliver of germanium or silicon no bigger than a shoelace tip, with wisps of wire attached. It is the missing electronic link that is making possible a host of new devices, e.g., a wrist radio, a hearing aid so tiny that it fits inside an eyeglass frame. In a jet fighter the use of transistors cuts 1,500 Ibs. from the plane's weight. Last week the mighty mite had the electrical industry racing madly to expand transistor production: Motorola is putting up a $1,500,000 plant in Phoenix; Westinghouse is building in Youngwood, Pa. and Sprague Electric in Concord, N.H. ; Philco bought a 100,000-sq.-ft. factory in Spring City, Pa., RCA is moving into a 120,000-sq.-ft. factory at Bridgewater, N.J.; Texas Instruments Co. is planning a plant on a 250-acre site near Dallas; and Raytheon is expanding its Newton, Mass, facilities.

The transistor was developed only eight years ago by three scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories. It amplifies electrical impulses just like the vacuum tube, but is free of the vacuum tube's limitations-fragility, bulkiness, high power consumption, short life. The transistor needs no warmup time, saves space, weight, heat and power, lasts 150 times as long, uses as little as one-thousandth the electric current.

Cost v. Vanity. But at $7.50 apiece it was so expensive that its first commercial use was in hearing aids. In 1952 Sonotone brought out the first transistorized aid at $229.50; it swept the field, and the race was on. Today 99% of hearing aids are transistorized; Zenith has a model selling for $50. As transistor production climbed from 100,000 in 1952 to a rate last week of 9,000,000 a year, the price dropped to about $2 apiece. Though they are still more expensive than most vacuum tubes, transistors are nevertheless conquering market after market.

Auto radiomakers are turning to transistors because they eliminate the bulky tubes, perishable vibrators, rectifiers and tube sockets. Transistorized radios are now standard on Chevrolet's Corvette, optional on the Chrysler and Imperial, and are likely to be standard in most cars by 1958.

In a jet fighter the transistors for radar and navigation aids cost ten times as much as vacuum tubes doing the same job, but the mighty mites do not require cooling, as do the tubes. This saves some $50,000, the cost of addkional power plant and airplane structure to carry the cooling apparatus, as well as cutting the weight of the plane.

Transistors have opened up a whole new radio market. Nine years ago manufacturers sold nearly ten standard home radios for every portable; now the margin is closer to two to one, and is steadily narrowing. Radio's transistorized reawakening began when Regency brought out the first T-radio in late 1954. Raytheon and G.E. followed, and today the industry is in the middle of its most feverish sales battle since the early postwar years. The outcome, said one busy manufacturer, "boils down to who makes transistors faster and in bigger quantities than the others."

Missiles & Doctors. There are as many other uses for transistors as there are electronic devices. Transistors are automatically switching 14,000 of New York City's street lights on and off. Doctors making their rounds in Manhattan's Mt. Sinai Hospital receive messages through transistor sets in their pockets. Transistors are already in partial use in Admiral TV sets, and CBS expects to market an all-transistor portable set in five years. They are going into guided missiles and giant brains; I.B.M. predicts that all electronic computers will be transistorized. Says Texas Instruments, one of the largest producers: "They truly are the basis for the electronics of the future."

There are still some problems. Transistors are hard to produce, unable to handle high frequency impulses, and vulnerable to extreme temperatures. But week to week the mighty mite is being refined, strengthened and made more cheaply. This month G.E. will take transistor production out of the semi-handicraft stage of its delicate infancy, put it on a semi-automated basis, and increase output ten times. In a few years transistor production is expected to total 30 million a year.

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