Electronic Genie: The Tangled History of Silicon

Electronic Genie takes its readers on a two-century journey that begins with Antoine Lavoisiter's prediction of the existence of silicon as an element. It traces the emergence of silicon as key to the development of most forms of today's electronics and its role in making possible the revolutionary digital computer. Loaded with information about such original thinkers as Lavoisier, John Bardeen, Bill Gates, Patrick Haggerty, Gordon Moore, and many more, the volume traces the use of silicon in metallurgy, as a diode rectifier in wireless and radio, and ultimately as a nonlinear element for heterodyne mixing in radar during World War II. Electronic Genie will appeal to students of science and technology as well as to anyone interested in the history of these fields.