Transistor radio
A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following their development in 1954, made possible by the invention of the transistor in 1947, they became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. Their pocket size sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. Beginning in the 1980s, however, cheap AM transistor radios were superseded by devices with higher audio quality such as portable CD players, personal audio players, boomboxes, and (eventually) smartphones, some of which contain radios themselves.
Gilbert Davey
When transistors first became available to amateurs in the mid-1950s, Davey was initially cautious, believing that their initial high price and variable performance made them an expensive risk for young constructors. However he soon relaxed these reservations, and his first transistor radio design appeared in Boy's Own Paper in January 1957. The title "Make a Cold Valve Set" summed up the novelty of the transistor.