Item Description

Volume XXXVII No. 5, September 1958 -- CONTENTS -- The First Ten Years of the Transistor (W O Baker); An Experimental Switching System Using New Electronic Techniques (A E Joel, Jr); Semiconductor Circuit Design Philosophy for the Central Control of an Electronic Switching System (B J Vokelson, W B Cagle & M D Underwod);

Fundamental Concepts in the Design of the Flying Spot Store (C W Hoover, Jr; R E Staehler & R W Ketchledge); A High-Speed Barrier Grid Store (T S Greenwood & R E Staehler); Linear Least Squares Smoothing and Prediction, with Applications (Sidney Darlington);

Automatic Number Identification and its Application to No. 1 crossbar, Panel and step-by-step offices (D H Pennoyer); Recent Bell System Monographs; Contributors to this issue (brief biographical notes).

'The technology in which it was to be used was already about 35 years old when Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley discovered the transistor ten years ago. This circumstance has led to an unusual course of development and application. The transistor has affected the technical and commercial growth of electronics and communications more quickly than might have been expected from the somewhat offhand newspaper comments of July 1, 1948... The quick growth of the transistor art after the original discovery came about because electronics based on an elaborate functionality of the vacuum tube as amplifier, modulator, oscialltor and such in our technology was already preeminent. The transistor provided an alternative to the vacuum tube in these functions, so electrotechnology, one of the most elegant intellectual attainments of history, was ready for any and all transistors...' (from Baker's article)

Also in this issue - the first in a series of articles describing an experimental electronic telephone switching system employing a number of new techniques. These include use of a stored program, a network employing gas tube cross-points, time-division common control & large-capacity barrier grid tube and photographic storage systems.