These home made transistors sacrifice a point contact diode to get the small chip of germanium, and form the other two electrodes with metal foil glued to paper. Given that germanium point contact ...

This was the very first transistor ever made, built by Walter Brattain with the help of John Bardeen. It was made of two gold foil contacts sitting on a germanium crystal. Current coming in one ...

The first transistor was about half an inch high ... Instead of bothering with tiny wires, Brattain attached a single strip of gold foil over the point of a plastic triangle.

These home made transistors sacrifice a point contact diode to get the small chip of germanium, and form the other two electrodes with metal foil glued to paper. Given that germanium point contact ...