1953 Bell Labs film explains how transistors will lead to the production of mobile devices

Back in 1915 Trans-Atlantic calls relied on as many as 500 connected vacuum tubes

Radar and microwave relay stations (used for coast-to-coast telephony and television) all depended on the vacuum tube until the transistor was created. Three men working at Bell Telephone Labs found a way to amplify an electric current within a solid without having to depend on a vacuum or heating element. And the power needs for a transistor are much less than those required for a vacuum tube. Transistors also don’t heat up like vacuum tubes do allowing many of today’s devices to be made small enough to fit in our pockets.

In a related statement that foreshadows the modern tech experience, the announcer says, “Because they are so tiny, transistors have made it possible to miniaturize many types of electronic equipment.” And the film goes on to note that transistors “may also be used in multi-channel telephony which increases the number of calls that can be carried at the same time along telephone lines.”

The documentary noted how phone calls could be improved thanks to the transistor. Bell Telephone used the technology to help amplify sounds to make the person on the other end of a long distance call sound like they were right next to you. Transistors, placed directly inside telephones, would allow a farmer, living in a rural area far from central exchanges, to hear and be heard loud and clear when on a call.

In the 1953 video, there was hope that someday consumers could play music from a device on their wrist

And while everything related to telephony was still wired, it is interesting to see that transistors could be used to help route long distance calls. And looking ahead to the current day smartwatch, the film says that thanks to those working on improving the transistor and looking for other uses for it, “you may be able to get music with the flick of your wrist from the so-called Dick Tracy radio.”

Check out this statement from the film. “Of course, we cannot build a calculating machine as flexible as the human brain but even a man-made computer designed to do hundreds of brain-like calculating jobs might need an Empire State Building to house it and a Niagara Falls to power and cool it if vacuum tubes were used in its construction.” So yes, the transistor also helps make the desktop PC and the laptop possible.

And these days we continue to make transistors smaller and smaller so that more of them can fit into a dense location. As long as this keeps happening and Moore’s Law (the observation that the number of transistors inside a chip double every other year) stays alive, faster and more powerful phones, tablets, and smartwatches can be made.