From Simon Birnstingl
Your editorial about the state of science and technology 50 years ago (7 January, p 3) reminded me of a story my father used to tell. As an apprentice engineer at British Thompson Huston in Rugby, UK, he was given a packet of three-legged components to check out. He was told only that they were “new triode valves from America” and had little else to go on.
His thought processes were logical and understandable. As anyone confronted with a valve/tube would do, he applied “heater voltage” – at least several tens of volts – across two of the pins, in preparation for testing for conductance thresholds. Pht! First one goes. Must have been a dud. And so the second and third.
He reported that the components must have come from a faulty batch. So, apparently, ended some of the first transistors to enter the UK.
Upper Beeding, West Sussex, UK
