Transistor inventor dies
8 May 2008 | 05:18 BST
Sparks goes out
THE BLOKE WHO brought the world the junction transistor and was responsible for the digital revolution, Morgan Sparks, has died. He was 91.
Sparks, who led Sandia National Laboratories for nearly a decade, came up with a working practical transistor. OK, he didn’t invent the idea. That was worked out by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, who won the Nobel Prize for it.
Sparks developed the microwatt junction transistor in 1951 which replaced vacuum tubes and made computers practical.
His family knew he did something with transistors but didn’t really understand how important he was to the whole age until the world went digital.
Sparks was preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Elizabeth MacEvoy Sparks. The couple had four children. µ
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