Teal

"After Teal arrived at TI, he focused on research and development of silicon. At an academic semiconductor conference in May 1954, Teal presented a paper titled “Recent Developments in Silicon.” Such conferences did not require authors to submit manuscripts in advance, so before the presentations, no one could know what Teal was going to say. At the same conference, there were several papers about silicon development. In a paper before Teal’s, on the development of silicon transistors, the author was a semiconductor research director at a large company. He said with confidence that silicon technology was advancing quickly, but that to use it to manufacture transistors would still require at least two or three more years. After he finished, Teal went on stage. Calm and unhurried, he described some experimental results, and among the audience there were still quite a few people dozing off. Finally, when he finished reading the paper, Teal raised his head and, in his Texas accent, slowly said: “We have successfully manufactured silicon transistors, whose performance matches what experiments predicted. TI is in pilot production, and we expect that in a few months we will be able to mass-produce them and bring them to market.”"

"Those who had been dozing suddenly woke up, and the atmosphere in the hall abruptly became tense. Before Teal had even finished speaking, dozens of hands were raised. The questioners could not believe their ears: “Have you really made a real silicon transistor?” Teal had come prepared; rather than explain verbally, he demonstrated with actual objects. He called out to a colleague who had been waiting backstage carrying a bucket of hot water, and at the same time took two pocket radios out of his pocket—one equipped with germanium transistors, the other with silicon transistors. He turned both radios on, first immersed the one with germanium transistors into the hot water, and the music that had been playing immediately gave way to silence. Then he immersed the one with silicon transistors, and the music continued without interruption. This was powerful proof, and everyone stood up and applauded enthusiastically. Unluckily for the presenters scheduled after Teal that day, their audiences suddenly dwindled. Outside the hall, small clusters of people excitedly discussed Teal’s announcement. Long lines formed in front of several public phone booths. Just walking past, one could hear people inside shouting: “They made silicon transistors in Texas!”"