On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:27:10 GMT, Patrick Turner
<info@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>Trevor Wilson wrote:
>>
>> "Patrick Turner" <info@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> news:47DD0B84.E12FE8B9@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> >
>>
>> <SNIP>
>> >
>> > More about noise and its causes is in RDH4, and because j-fets were
not
>> > invented in 1953
>> > when RDH4 was being written, I suggest interested ppl search on the
net
>> > and read many books to put themselves
>> > in touch with what makes a quiet preamp.
>>
>> **Thanks for all that, Patrick. As always, very interesting. Just a
minor
>> nit-pick though. FETs have actually been around for a long time. A very
long
>> time. Here's a few patent references:
>>
>>
http://v3.espacenet.com/origdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US1745175&RPN=CA272437&DOC=ca9239e0872ee7a55e19d3915900a7771e
>>
>> http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB439457
>>
>> Of course, neither device was commercially available. Imagine if people
had
>> paid attention to this technology back in the 1930s. Having said all
that,
>> practical FETs did not arrive until around 1958. Long after RDH4 was
>> written.
>
>It has been said by some folks that had someone been able to make a
>reliable and
>useful and saleable j-fet or mosfet devices before the germanium
>transistor was
>invented then nobody would have bothered with germanium.
The operative phrase is "had someone been able to make (it)"
>Germanium transistors were rather awful creatures and every real tubeman
>laughed at them.
At the time, germanium was the only crystalline semiconductor material
that could be made pure enough to work
>Then came the silicon variety, and nobody laughed any more, they cried
>instead.
Everybody had known that silicon would be a better material but it was
Texas Instruments discovering a way to make silicon pure enough that
made them possible.
People way underestimate, like generally ignore, the contribution of
materials and manufacturing technology to a 'great idea'.
>The consecutive discoveries only became im****tant when there was an
>application,
There is seldom a 'shortage' of applications. The problem is usually
in being able to make whatever it is.
For example, almost all of the automobile's mechanical devices we
consider 'modern' were tried within a decade or two of the
automobile's invention. But 'automatic transmissions' made with
leather belts don't last very long and turbochargers made with the
crude metallurgy of the day burned up, not to mention the problem of
how you keep the heads and seals on the block with that much power in
the cylinder.
Same kind of problem with the gasoline engine itself. People thought
it would be a good idea but no one could make cylinders and pistons
accurate enough to contain the explosive force and the steam engine's
solution of leather seals just didn't cut it.
>and now developments spur applications, and applications spur
>development,
>and as a species we have learnt to develop many things just for the heck
>of it because a
>good use will come along soon enough and money can be made.
The reason people 'make money' is because other people find their
idea/invention useful. This is called a 'good thing'.
>Usually good uses are defined as being initially useful to the military,
>so its all a sham anyway.....
There are infinitely more things invented for peaceful purposes, such
as Franklin's lightning rod to prevent house fires, the steam engine
for pumping water out of mines, the steamboat for passenger and
freight service, the telephone coming from Bell's work with the deaf,
the vacuum tube triode for telephone repeater service, and the
transistor coming from a search for a better telephone 'relay' switch.
<snip of 'hate mankind' babble>
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