9) Germanium Wave Detector Made in U.S.A Changed to ---
The members of Basic Research Department right after the successful test sample
completion
(Asakawa and Iwase from left to right)
Research Institute for Electrical Communication, the organization
under Electric Communication Ministry, succeeded in making a test sample of
a transistor in Japan for the first time. It was soon after the institute
started to take its independent activities after the separation of Communication
Sector from Electrotechnical Laboratory in the summer of 1948.
Momentum of transistor research started to build up as early as in the autumn
of 1949, and serious research activity was officially started in 1950.
Takeo Seki who was the chief of Radio Research Group in Basic Research Department
(later Chief Engineer at Hitachi Denshi Co. Ltd.,) played the promoting role.
The key members for making transistor test samples were Shingo Iwase who was
scouted from Assistant Professor of Tohoku University (later, Executive Director
at Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.,), and Toshifumi Asakawa who just graduated from
Kyoto University (later, Managing Director at Ricoh Co. Ltd.,). The research
at the Institute was gradually proceeded, by referring to very few documents
from Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) and taking part in lecture meetings
held by Electric Test Laboratories Group.
However, to start with, they could not get germanium, the core material for
sample preparation. Therefore, they went to electric parts junk shops in Akihabara,
and bought germanium radio wave detectors of type number IN34 made in USA.
After dismantling the detector, 2 needles were set on the germanium crystal.
They basically tried to follow the first point contact transistor at BTL.
The disappointing days continued for a while, and then transistor function
was finally observed in the early autumn of 1950．The paper with the title
of "About Amplification Phenomenon of Transistor" was presented
as their joint work at the conference of The Physical Society of Japan in
Osaka in November in the same year.
The photograph was taken just after the successful completion of the sample.
Asakawa is on the left and Iwase is next to him. They put a paper on the wall,
proudly showing, "This is the first transistor in Japan made by Research
Institute for Electrical Communication."
(Photo: by courtesy of Toshifumi Asakawa)