Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (Sloan Technology) [Hardcover]

Michael Riordan (Author), Lillian Hoddeson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393041247 | ISBN-13: 978-0393041248 | Publication Date: January 1997 | Edition: 1st

On December 16, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, physicists at Bell Laboratories, jabbed two electrodes into a sliver of the metalloid geranium. The power flowing from the geranium far exceeded what went in; in that moment the transistor was invented and the Information Age was born. No other devices have been as crucial to modern life as the transistor and the microchip it spawned. This is the story of the science and personalities that made these inventions possible. William Shockley, Bell Labs' team leader and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize with Brattain and Bardeen for the discovery, grew obsessed with the transistor and went on to become the father of Silicon Valley. The process of invention - including the competition and economic aspirations involved - all part of the greatest technological explosion in history is surveyed here.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In rich detail, Riordan (The Hunting of the Quark, LJ 1/88) and Hoddeson (history, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) unfurl the development of the transistor (whose 50th anniversary will be December 1997) and the lives of its three principal discoverers?John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. Of course, redoubtable scientific achievement is rarely engendered by a small cadre over just a few years, and one of the salient features of this book is its parallel exposition of the progress of the physics of the electron dating to the late 19th century, led by a host of well-known pioneers?Bohr, Heisenberg, and so many others. Standing on the shoulders of these giants while harvesting the fruits of their own astonishing research, the triumvirate of the transistor created the device that has revolutionized life today, making possible television, computers, and other electronic devices. Crystal Fire strives for the fast-paced feel that the subject deserves but often succumbs to pedestrian and cliche-ridden writing. Overall, however, this is a fine work, rounded out by an extensive bibliography and inexhaustible endnoes. Recommended for general collections.
-?Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The solid-state amplifier, whose coinage as "transistor" is one of many intriguing stories the authors include in this history of the device's invention, merits comparison to the wheel, if only by the criterion that every person relies on both every day. The mother of invention was the vacuum tube, bulky, electricity hungry, and breakable, and physicists at Bell Labs furrowed their brows to come up with something more reliable. The solution involved the interaction between electric fields and solid materials of varying electrical conductivity, in which lies the engaging tale involving serendipity, professional competition, and theoretical breakthroughs culminating in the moment of Eureka in late 1947. The three principals who received the Nobel Prize for the transistor were not the best-oiled machine in history, and their biographies, which the authors intertwine with the technical developments, demonstrate the action of scientific ambition and hope for future riches in the creation of revolutionary inventions. The authorial team, a physicist and a historian, combine their strengths to present an accessible work worth most libraries' attention. Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393041247
• ISBN-13: 978-0393041248
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,129,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Crystal Fire, December 30, 1997

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[e-mail] (SF, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (Sloan Technology) (Hardcover)

With a clearer explanation of the basic forces behind semi-conductivity and less history of quantum physics, this book would rate a '10.' As it stands, the authors seem to assume at least B.S. level competence in physical chemsistry in their readers and dwell ponderously on a century of scientific history that is but vaguely related to the central topic: invention of the transistor and its spawning of the chip industry. Better to have extended the story forward to Grove (instead of stalling in the 1960s) than wending backward to Bohr, but then what would the authors do for a sequel? Still, a compelling read and recommended, especially if you brush up on your sub-atomic particle physics and keep the periodic table close-at-hand. Best of all is the book's concluding sentence: "For as fire illuminates, we must always remember, it also consumes." So it does--and if this story hooks you, it will consume 285 pages of bathroom time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science as Thriller, February 5, 1999

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Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (Sloan Technology) (Hardcover)

Who would have thought a book about the invention of the transistor could be so compelling? And yet here it is. The authors tell two parallel stories, one about the inventors, and one about the developments in physics that led to, and followed from, the invention of the transistor. The interplay between pure science and technology has seldom been explained as well.

I'd put this book alongside "The Invention That Changed The World" as the two best popular histories of science an technology of the decade.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Original research for a change, January 10, 1998

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"chulas_friend" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (Sloan Technology) (Hardcover)

The authors created this book the old fashioned way with in depth interviews and research into unpublished materials. This makes it particularly interesting and credible. From discussion of the original patents to Bell Labs office politics and Shockley's diary, this book is a treasure trove of info.