Germanium transistors

[unclejed613]

i saw a transistor history page on the web, and the story is that Raytheon was making transistors for the military, and if it fell outside the military specs, but still worked, they marked it as a CK722 and sold it on the hobby markets... they also marketed some commercial versions with better defined specs than the hobby devices. this allowed them to recover some of the cost of making transistors that were originally classified as rejects. when i was a kid i had a bunch of CK722 devices but they were really leaky... i'll have to look for that history page again... i think i have it bookmarked on my pc at home.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

i saw a transistor history page on the web, and the story is that Raytheon was making transistors for the military, and if it fell outside the military specs, but still worked, they marked it as a CK722 and sold it on the hobby markets...

Probably so, in the UK such devices were usually sold as red spot or white spot transistors.

 

[schmitt trigger]

I remember some Japanese transistors, 2SB-types, which had colored dots to indicate their grading.

 

[Neagu Raul]

What about the Sylvania 2N35?

 

[AnalogKid]

HEY - I have some of those.

ak

 

[Neagu Raul]

How much do they cost?

 

[throbscottle]

I see these old transistors and other parts on flea bay when I cruise the "parts or not working" section occasionally (because you never know). It breaks my heart when I think about all the stuff I dismantled as a kid and eventually the parts got lost or experimented on to destruction or opened up to see what's inside, or thrown out when I found newer stuff, and I see something there I know I had and they want £££'s for it. OC-somethings glass envelope filled with gunk and painted black, they were so fascinating to 6yo me, I didn't know what they were....

I had a load of valves too. Wish I still had them. I remember carefully dismantling some of them. Couldn't make sense of what I found. Most components were a mystery.

I could so easily be a vintage component collector, because interesting=beautiful and old=interesting. But I want my parts to actually do something, not just sit there, so I leave them for someone else more interested in the collecting side of things.

Ah well - nostalgia trip over

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I had a load of valves too. Wish I still had them. I remember carefully dismantling some of them.

More fun dismantling them with an air rifle!

 

[throbscottle]

Doubtless, but I didn't do it for fun, I did it to find out what was inside and try to understand it. I was always (and still am, for that matter) amazed by the precision and delicacy in there. Same with metal cased transistors too - some of them were quite elaborate. Obviously the understanding part wasn't going to happen there...

I'm reminded of being out with some other boys (might have been Cubs) and finding the smashed remains of a TV. I showed whoever I was talking to the electron gun - the supports were broken so you could get at the electrodes. I tried to explain what it was. What I got in response was (other boy pulling out what might have been the focus anode) something like "this would make a frying-pan for an action-man, it's just the right size". I knew my cause was lost...

 

[Neagu Raul]

something like "this would make a frying-pan for an action-man, it's just the right size". I knew my cause was lost...

That happened to me a lot of times... Well, i guess we all are the black sheeps in our childhood

 

[schmitt trigger]

When I was a young teenager, one friend asked me; “how come your conversation always drifts towards transistors?”
Been there, done that.