2019-09-02 Bloomberg Businessweek

I

n hislateryears,whenhelookedbackon

hiscareerasapioneeroftransistortechnol-

ogy,GordonTealwouldrealize it all happened

because of germanium. He first encountered the

element as a chemistry doctoral candidate at

BrownUniversityinthe1920s,andhelikedthe

lookofit beforehehadanyinklingofwhatit

coulddo.“Tome,thisbrightsilver-colored ele-

ment was—and still is—an exotic and beautiful

material,” he remembered decades later in an

oral history for the Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers. That germanium lacked

any practical application at the time only made

it more alluring. “Its complete uselessness,” he

said, “fascinated and challenged me.”

Bell Telephone Laboratories recruited Teal in

1930,beforehefinishedhisdissertation.AtBell,

helookedforwaystousewhathecalleda “con-

tinuingpersonalattachment”togermanium in

his work, if for no other reason than “to seek

some way of capitalizing on this knowledge

and interest acquired years before.” His desire

wasn’t merely sentimental. Although Bell was

less chemistry lab than machine shop—its pri-

mary focus was on building better telephones—

Teal and his colleagues knew a revolution was

coming in which the ability to monkey around

with seemingly uselesselementswouldmat-

ter as much as engineering.Within a year

he was assigned toBell’stelevision division,

where his chemistry

skillshelpedwithpre-

paring light-sensitive

substances and glass

forcathode-raytubes.

WhenheheardthatBell’schiefrival,

RCACorp.,wasusinggermaniumto

makeitsTVssensitivetolightfarout-

sidethevisiblespectrum,heasked

tofollow up onthat. His bosses

turnedhimdown.

Itwouldtakeyears,andmore

thana fewdetours,beforeTealfounda waytobringupger-

maniumagain.WhenWorldWarII came, he worked on coat-

ings for gun barrels and rocket nozzles. That was boring,

but another assignment, the semiconductor, was tantalizing.

With their ability to manipulate the direction,resistance,and

amplification of electrical currents, semiconductors would

eventually form the basis for all transistor technology. To

make one, you need a material that’s neither a good con-

ductor of electricity nor a good insulator. By 1942 another

Bell competitor, AT&T Inc., had started using silicon, ger-

manium’ssisterelement,tomakea semiconductorcalled

a rectifierforradarsystems.Tealbelievedhecoulddobet-

terwithgermanium.Hecreated some germanium rectifi-

ers and would have kept going in that direction had he not

been sidelined by pneumonia. When he came back, Bell

40

◼ Gallium $350/ kg High-qualityrefined

◼ Germanium $1,300 / kg Germaniummetal

◼ Arsenic $1.40 / kg Arsenic metal, China market

TEAL: COURTESY AT&T ARCHIVES AND HISTORY CENTER. TRANSISTOR: COURTESY NOKIA BELL LABS. BRAZIL NUT: ZOONER GMBH/ALAMY

33

As

Arsenic

32

Ge

Germanium

31

Ga

Gallium

The Original Germaniac

By Robert Kolker How one man’s obsession with an obscure metalloid helped build the digital world

TealatBellLabs in 1951

Thefirstjunction

transistor