October 18, 2011 For the first 50 years after its invention, the
radio was essentially a piece of furniture. Families sat huddled
around a wooden appliance, which used a large amount of energy
and was too fragile to be carried around because of the
breakable vacuum tubes inside. Then, on this day in 1954, the
nature of consumer electronics changed forever: listeners could
carry around a small device and enjoy their music on the go.
Before the Walkman, the iPod or the iPhone, it all started with
the introduction of the first commercial transistor radio,
currently on display at the American History Museum. The
research that led to the transistor replacing the vacuum tube
was based on work done during World War II, says Harold Wallace,
a curator at the museum. “There was a tremendous push during the
war to reduce the size and power consumption of vacuum tubes,”
he says, particularly because the receivers used in radio-
controlled bombs depended on vacuum tube technology. “Not long
after the war ended, the transis