A method of designing transistor trigger circuits

During the war there accumulated a considerable knowledge of valve circuits used for waveform generation and associated operations. Arising out of this, a fairly general circuit technique was developed which laid down some general principles of circuit design. One of the main objectives was the ability to design circuits that would operate with valves having characteristics which varied within fairly wide tolerances without component adjustments being necessary when valves were changed. The paper outlines a similar technique for use with point-contact transistors. It is written from the point of view of one familiar with the valve-circuit technique, and draws heavily on the analogy between the characteristics of transistors and pentodes. Much of the terminology and many of the ideas are carried over into the new field. Some basic circuits are described, such as 2-state devices, timing circuits, counters and relaxation oscillators. The application of these in digital computers is then considered and more complex arrangements are described. It is concluded that, using the methods described, circuits can be designed that will operate with the transistors currently available without the adjustment of components, or over-rigid selection of transistors.