From _Nature_, 25 December 1948:

  J Bardeen and W.H. Brattain, of the Bell Telephone Laboratories,
  in the course of general investigation, initiated and directed by
  W.H. Shockley, on the properties of semiconductors, have developed
  a new three-element electronic device called by them a "transistor"
  (transfer-resistor) or "semiconductor triode". This can be employed
  as an amplifier or oscillator and can replace the vacuum triode in
  most electronic circuits. The device, which consists of a metal
  cylinder, about an inch long and the thickness of a pencil, con-
  taining the germanium and its three electrodes, was demonstrated
  with great success recently at a Press conference in New York. ...
  The transistor is not yet in production, but its simplicity,
  small size, performance, long life, and probably low cost when
  mass-produced, should find many applications in all forms of
  electronic equipment.

Two additional notes:

  1. The current cost of a mass-produced transistor is
  as little as $0.00000004.

  2. While silicon has replaced the germanium as the substrate
  material in the original transistor, the next generation of
  very high-speed semiconductors will once again be using
  germanium (in combination with silicon).

-- Bruce


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