My late father was an electrical/mechanical engineer. He had a box full of the old style vacuum tubes for the old style black and white console television we had.
When I began studying electronics in the late 90’s, dad gave me a handful of them. I took them to my lab class and showed them to my instructor. Let’s just say that if the tubes were girls, he probably would’ve had an erection, he was that excited to see them!! Of all the instructors we had, he was the geekiest one!
Shockley was also quite the racist and eugenicist. More proof that expertise in one area doesn't mean crap outside of that area.
My late father was an electrical/mechanical engineer. He had a box full of the old style vacuum tubes for the old style black and white console television we had.
When I began studying electronics in the late 90’s, dad gave me a handful of them. I took them to my lab class and showed them to my instructor. Let’s just say that if the tubes were girls, he probably would’ve had an erection, he was that excited to see them!! Of all the instructors we had, he was the geekiest one!
I remember going to the grocery store with my dad to replace vacuum tubes in the TV. They had a tester to make sure you got one that matched the base.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/store-vacuum-tube-tester
I'd argue that the invention of the thermoionic valve was more significant and the circumstances around its development were far more intersting.