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Show Phone Managers Explain New Transistor Roll It has been just ten years since the transister was first demonstrated by the Bell Laboratories, Lab-oratories, according to Managers Mana-gers of the Mountain States Telephone Company. This unusual un-usual device, no larger than an eraser on a pencil, heralded what has come to be called the "new electronic age." The transister spanned in 10 years the development achieved by the vacuum tube in 40 years. It can do almost everything an ordinary tube can do ,-and do it cheaper over a longer period of time. The transister amplifies, oscillates, os-cillates, has no grid, gives off no heat and operates as soon as it is turned on. It has no warm-up period like a vacuum tube. It has an indefinite life, perhaps as long as a century, and uses only minute amounts of power. A flashlight battery will energize a transister for hundreds of hours. Although the transister is or.ly ten years old it has found its way into a wide variety of uses in hearing aids, radios, fuel injection systems, portable TV sets, phonographs, clocks, toys and most of all, in the telephone industry. As the use of transisters has spread its cost has decreased. A transistor that would have cost $21 in 1953 can be purchased pur-chased today for $1.50. In 1957 there were 30 million produced and it is expected this number will climb to a half-billion by 1965, and the price will continue con-tinue to be lower. |