Brattain

Brattain reported: "Using this double point contact, contact was made to a germanium surface that had been anodized to 90 volts, electrolyte washed off in H2O and then had some gold spots evaporated on it.

Brattain started experiments to study the surface states through observations made while shining a bright light on the semiconductor's surface.

Brattain started working on building such a device, and tantalizing hints of amplification continued to appear as the team worked on the problem.

By June 1948, witnessing currents flowing through point-contacts, Mataré produced consistent results using samples of germanium produced by Welker, similar to what Bardeen and Brattain had accomplished earlier in December 1947.

Carefully restricted internal conferences within Bell Labs shared information about the work of Brattain, Bardeen, Shockley and others who were engaged in related research.

He invited several other people to see this crystal, and Walter Brattain immediately realized there was some sort of junction at the crack.

He ordered Brattain and Bardeen to find out why it wouldn't.

Improvements in transistor design Shockley was upset about the device being credited to Brattain and Bardeen, who he felt had built it "behind his back" to take the glory.

On December 16, Brattain devised a method of placing two gold leaf contacts close together on a germanium surface.

The ensuing publicity generated by the "invention of the transistor" often thrust Shockley to the fore, much to the chagrin of Bardeen and Brattain.

They married in 1935 and had a son, William G. Brattain, in 1943.

Three others (submitted first) covered the electrolyte-based transistors with Bardeen, Gibney and Brattain as the inventors.