The History of Chemistry
78: Guiding Light
We learn about the development of the LED, the rival display technology to the LCD. We start with Henry Round's 1907 observations, "Losev light" as per Oleg Losev in the 1920s and the patent he obtained, Rubin Braunstein of RCA in the 1950s, Kurt Lehovec's model of LEDs in the 1950s, then Robert Biard and Gary Pittman at Texas Instruments in 1961. The first inarguable LED was built by Nick Holonyak and friends at General Electric in 1962. We hear of improvements in technology through the 1960s and early 1970s, leading to LED watches and calculators--but not full-color displays or tail-lamps for cars.
- Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry
- Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at steve@historyofchem.com
- Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook
We learn about the development of the LED, the rival display technology to the LCD. We start with Henry Round's 1907 observations, "Losev light" as per Oleg Losev in the 1920s and the patent he obtained, Rubin Braunstein of RCA in the 1950s, Kurt Lehovec's model of LEDs in the 1950s, then Robert Biard and Gary Pittman at Texas Instruments in 1961. The first inarguable LED was built by Nick Holonyak and friends at General Electric in 1962. We hear of improvements in technology through the 1960s and early 1970s, leading to LED watches and calculators--but not full-color displays or tail-lamps for cars.
- Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry
- Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at steve@historyofchem.com
- Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook