Tesla invents the transistor in 1896

danwild6 · Jul 16, 2006

I was researching RLV's(reusable launch vehicles)and came across the statement

well as historians consider the vacuum tube as being costly detour that delayed the development of true electronics by 50 years

So I decided to research that subject further and to my utter amazement and complete satisfaction came upon a hit regarding none other than Nikola Tesla.

Inventors of the modern computer have repeatedly been surprised, when seeking patents, to encounter Tesla's basic ones already on file.

Noted Tesla historian Leland Anderson, a former EE and a board member of the Wardenclyffe project. Indeed, two of Tesla's patents from 1903 contain the basic principles of the logic AND circuit element.

So lets say Tesla invents the transistor in the 1896-1906 time period. Know anyone with any knowledge of the history of the computer nows that we won't be surfing the web in 1955 in TTL(I'd say 1965 at the earliest). But it does mean that advanced consumer(as well as military)technology would be availabe decades earlier for some applications. Which would lead to advances in other areas of science and industry.

So what would be the immediate effects 1906-1926 on world events. Then effects later out 1926-1946. And so on.

Glen · Jul 16, 2006

I intend to shamelessly steal some of this to add to the XXth Century, unless you would like to do the honors?

Max Sinister · Jul 17, 2006

Problems:
1) Tesla was way ahead of his time
2) He had a difficult personality
3) He was a great engineer, but for building a computer, you also have to know a lot about mathematics and logic. Could he do that? Even a simple one?

jolo · Jul 17, 2006

Max Sinister said:
Problems:
1) Tesla was way ahead of his time
2) He had a difficult personality
3) He was a great engineer, but for building a computer, you also have to know a lot about mathematics and logic. Could he do that? Even a simple one?

I suppose he wouldn't need to invent a computer. Others could do it later. He'd only need to use it as a switch or for building a smaller radio. I suppose the most important problem of Tesla was trying too hard to achieve the (as we now know) difficult task of transmitting large amounts of Energy wireless, and the second most important problem was being taken advantage of by his contemporaries, especially Edison. His personality doesn't appear to be that complicated (for an ingenious scientist) considering that he was quite able to get some financial support without producing too many commercial hits (Edisons strength).

danwild6 · Jul 17, 2006

Glen said:
I intend to shamelessly steal some of this to add to the XXth Century, unless you would like to do the honors?

Well Glenn since you obviously had the idea first(kinda stupid of my to put it in this forum wasn't it

) be my guest.

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

danwild6 said:
Well Glenn since you obviously had the idea first(kinda stupid of my to put it in this forum wasn't it ) be my guest.

Feel free however to add events regarding Tesla to the timeline, or any other events for that matter.

I just got the idea in there. If you want to do it differently, you can still post your events how you'd like them.

Johnnyreb · Jul 17, 2006

Where do these ideas come from? Tesla was born and raised in Austria-Hungary.

Everyone knows you meant nothing in Austria-Hungary unless you (a) were from the nobility and (b) could ride a horse well. Tesla had neither talent. He would have been ignored. Quite right , too, can't have these young whipper-snappers with their clever ideas.

Besides, could the Fella waltz or polka? Could he hell.

Max Sinister · Jul 17, 2006

Well, he was born to a Serbian family in Croatia, emigrated first to Budapest in 1881, then to Paris in 1882, and to the US in 1884.

HueyLong · Jul 17, 2006

But we saw the AC\DC crisis in OTL.... would be rather funny if there is a vacuum tube\transiter style rivalry.

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

HueyLong said:
But we saw the AC\DC crisis in OTL.... would be rather funny if there is a vacuum tube\transiter style rivalry.

I think we'll see the transistor win handily there, much like the AC power did.

1940LaSalle · Jul 17, 2006

I didn't know this about Tesla, who is perhaps the most overlooked contributor to technology in latter-day history (that's open to debate, of course). Let's say for the sake of discussion that he developed a proto-transistor in the late 19th century: I suspect that radio would have been its first field of application. Commercial radio might well have been viable by 1910, with commercial television feasible by the late 1920s (delayed somewhat by the crash of 1929), and deployed in major cities by the mid-to-late 1930s (that is, availability of TV in 1938 might have been about what it was in 1953 in OTL).

I also suggest that calculating devices--that is, desktop calculators--might have been the first mathematical/engineering application of this technology, but those would pave the way for the first true computers. Very possibly the heavy lifting on the Manhattan Project might have used computers developed in the late 1930s, which may have meant more than just the Fat Man and the Little Boy--and both available by, say, 1942. That in turn might have brought Germany to heel rather quickly (Japan, I'm not so sure about).

chunkeymonkey13q · Jul 17, 2006

Assuming much of that wasn't butterflied away that is.

The Sandman · Jul 17, 2006

We could also assume that radar will be developed more quickly, along with practically anything involving physics or chemistry. How long before some basic degree of CAD becomes possible here? Also, would potential improvements in radio, fire control, and torpedo guidance technology occur early enough to have an effect on WWI?

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

1940LaSalle said:
I didn't know this about Tesla, who is perhaps the most overlooked contributor to technology in latter-day history (that's open to debate, of course). Let's say for the sake of discussion that he developed a proto-transistor in the late 19th century: I suspect that radio would have been its first field of application. Commercial radio might well have been viable by 1910, with commercial television feasible by the late 1920s (delayed somewhat by the crash of 1929), and deployed in major cities by the mid-to-late 1930s (that is, availability of TV in 1938 might have been about what it was in 1953 in OTL).

I also suggest that calculating devices--that is, desktop calculators--might have been the first mathematical/engineering application of this technology, but those would pave the way for the first true computers. Very possibly the heavy lifting on the Manhattan Project might have used computers developed in the late 1930s, which may have meant more than just the Fat Man and the Little Boy--and both available by, say, 1942. That in turn might have brought Germany to heel rather quickly (Japan, I'm not so sure about).

Not bad ideas, not bad at all.

I agree about the radio and the calculator.

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

chunkeymonkey13q said:
Assuming much of that wasn't butterflied away that is.

I think some of it would be, but a 'similar' set of events, at least up to WWI, is likely.

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

The Sandman said:
We could also assume that radar will be developed more quickly, along with practically anything involving physics or chemistry. How long before some basic degree of CAD becomes possible here? Also, would potential improvements in radio, fire control, and torpedo guidance technology occur early enough to have an effect on WWI?

Ah, because of the transistor calculators?

CAD must wait for the microchip, I fear. And it is not clear to me that advancing the transistor automatically advances the development of the microchip.

The Sandman · Jul 17, 2006

True; microchips probably require additional material developments. I would expect, however, that more accurate calculations would be a boon to anything that involves precision manufacturing.

Of course, if transistor-augmented militaries are commonplace by WWI, it does beg the question of whether this might produce additional strains on the various war economies due to shortages of the necessary metals.

danwild6 · Jul 17, 2006

Prior to the First World War I can see the major european powers develope calculators for the improvement of the accuracy of artillery in their field armies. The RN and the IN would probably also have held great interest for such devices.

Glen · Jul 17, 2006

The Sandman said:
True; microchips probably require additional material developments. I would expect, however, that more accurate calculations would be a boon to anything that involves precision manufacturing.

So earlier, but not as early as one might at first assume.

Of course, if transistor-augmented militaries are commonplace by WWI, it does beg the question of whether this might produce additional strains on the various war economies due to shortages of the necessary metals.

Good question. Anyone know?

1940LaSalle · Jul 17, 2006

Silicon, one of the keys to transistors, can be had anywhere that sand is abundant: see, for example, the US southwest. Germanium is a bit more problematic. There are sizable deposits in the US, as well as on the Korean peninsula, and (I believe) South America. If that's true, it wouldn't bode well for a transistor-augmented Central Powers force: although they were able to get around the need for natural nitrates for military explosives via the Haber process, there's no getting around germanium for some/most transistors--at least I don't think so. Here I defer to someone a lot more knowledgable about electronics.