Crystal fire: the invention, development and impact of the transistor

[Adapted from Chapter 1 of "Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age," by M. Riordan and L. Hoddeson, 1997, W.W. Norton & Co.] This book by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson recounts the lives of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, the three principal inventors of the transistor, and the revolutionary discoveries of others including Robert Noyce, Jean Hoerni and J.S. Kilby that led to the computer era and the phenomenon of Silicon Valley.