Comments by "Paul Frederick" (@1pcfred) on "" video.

Bratton and Bardeen were both living in my home town when they invented the transistor. I grew up next door to Bell Labs. Dennis Ritchie grew up in my home town too. He went on to develop the C programming language and the UNIX operating system. He worked at Bell Labs too. The Labs was a famous place. By 1982 it was all over though. It's still there. The glory days are behind it now though.
12
@akyhne what Edison invented was a practical commercial light bulb. You needed an electrical engineering degree to use any of the kluges that were around before Edison perfected the bulb. Specifically Edison invented the screw base. So all anyone had to do was simply screw a bulb into a socket. Something anyone could do. Even someone of your limited abilities.
4
@ChadWilson Edison was not a man that was easily influenced or impressed. He was a real jerk in fact. Once he hired a mathematician to calculate the volume of a bulb. So the guy went off and did all the calculations. Then he took all of his papers to Edison to show him. Edison took the bulb, broke the base off, filled it with water and then measured the water in a graduated cylinder in front of the guy. Then he said, you're close. It was a total dick move. Edison hated educated people.
4
@akyhne but Edison did invent the light bulb that was commercially successful. I've seen what came before Edison. None of that stood a chance. You wouldn't have a career except for Edison. Not one in electricity at any rate.
3
@bdwilcox yes I'm a Hilltopper. Bratton and Bardeen were long gone in my time. But I used to see Dennis Ritchie around from time to time. He lived in Berkeley Heights which is on the other side of New Providence. We shopped in the same grocery store. Plus he'd haunt a flea market that I went to too. Out in Warrenville at the firehouse.
3
$49 in 1950 would be $637.79 today. So about the price of a smart phone.
2
@akyhne that'd be accurate. Ford taught everyone how to build cars. Before Ford production numbers were in the dozens. Ford made millions of cars. Not that Ford invented the assembly line or interchangeable parts. Another American did that.
2
@JamesDavy2009 well yeah. At the time a portable transistorized radio was the peak of technology. The absolute cutting edge. My Mom told me a story of a kid that got one back then and everyone was mightly impressed. It was akin to walking around with your extraterrestrial friend or something.
1
Not any electric guitarist. But many of them are pretty ignorant.
1