2) Gold Medal vs. Bronze Medal


The commemoration medal that IEEE presented to Shockley et. al
on the 25th anniversary panel discussion event
(Replica in Shimura's possession)

The photograph is a replica of the commemoration medal that IEEE presented to the three inventors prior to the opening of the 25th anniversary panel discussion on transistor invention. The medals were actually gold ones, but one handed over to me, as one of the press staff, was a bronze medal imprinted by the same mold. The attached paper humorously said, "To you who didn't invent a transistor."

By the way, there is an inscription, "1948-1973 25 Years of Progress" on the back of this medal. It is commonly believed that the transistor amplification phenomenon was confirmed at Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) on December 16, 1947. It should have been "1947-1972" instead, if you used this date. But they adopted June 30, 1948 as the formal invention date, which was the date of the official announcement from BTL and it caused this one-year slip. It is said that the official announcement was delayed more than 6 months partly because of their patent strategy, and also because they tried to draw the best conclusion through their very careful study on the future perspective of the applications.

| To page top ||To Part 1 index

“Mr. Shimura’s Essays with Historic Photos”    Semiconductor History Museum of Japan
Society of Semiconductor Industry Specialists (SSIS), General Incorporated Association
Shiota Bldg 202, 6-27-10 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan, 160-0022, Tel:81-3-6457-3245 Fax:81-3-6457-3246 E-mail:info@ssis.or.jp Url:http://www.ssis.or.jp
All the contents including the texts and the photos herein published are neither allowed to be reproduced, nor copied without permission of SSIS.
Copyright (C) 2016, SSIS All Rights Reserved