Conquering the Electron: The Geniuses, Visionaries, Egomaniacs, and Scoundrels Who Built Our Electronic Age

by Derek Cheung, Eric Brach

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics.Beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad, this book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next one on the long journey to our modern day technologies. Want to know how AT&T's Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology--and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work--and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and an early grave? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside the blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place. By exploring the combination of genius, infighting, and luck that powered the creation of the electronic age we inhabit today, Conquering the Electron shows the interconnection of each advance to the next while also pulling back the curtain on the visionaries whose ideas shaped our world. 

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Technology, Physics, Biography

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2014

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do sound like a broken record when reviewing nearly all "popular" book on science and technology. These are almost always short on the science and technology and long on secondary material such as the personal lives of the participants. In this case, Cheung heavily favors the business aspects, while leaving out most of the very interesting technical details, which will extremely frustrate those wanting to learn something. It would have not taken many more pages, with figures, simple circuit diagrams, and more photos, to add this detail, while not compromising the author's goal of charting the path of the development of electronics. I'm not advocating a textbook, but a respectful work which will satisfy and challenge readers.

I'm sick of the fear that technical and science writers have of being seen as smarter than their audiences.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It was a wild ride through history, most of which was in the United States, but the authors' focus was blessedly non-ethnocentric. The US was just where it all happened. I learned how many of those that drove our electronics era were hyper-narcissistic at best and pathological at worst!

The authors did a great job of making a highly technical area very readable, which of course, did involve sacrificing technical depth in some areas. Nevertheless, it's a great primer, and learning about the people was almost as interesting as learning about the technology itself!

The structure of the book was very readable. They could have improved it further by breaking down the analogical development behind the ideas to emphasise the discovery process a little more, but it is done quite well in most areas, and i admit, there was a lot to get through.

I found it particularly useful for understanding the principle architecture of the computer, and I was very thankful for a general overview of how we got to where we are. I would love an expanded edition of this work, if the authors decide to write a follow-up volume!

Key points:

Electromagnetism
* Early days: Otto von Guericke (1663) developed the first static electricity generator. Stephen Gray (1729) determined that different materials have different electric conductivity. Charles du Fay (1733) found that the use of different materials can produce a positive and a negative charge. Pieter van Musschenbroek (1745) invented the Leyden Jar for storing electricity. Benjamin Franklin (1752) found electricity in lightning and used it to charge a Leyden Jar. He also invented the lightning rod. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1789) quantified static electrical discharge.
* Alessandro Volta (1800) created the Voltaic Pile (renamed the 'battery' by Franklin), using alternating zinc and silver discs between layers of brine-soaked cardboard or felt. A current flowed when the top zinc disc was connected to the bottom silver one by a copper ribbon. Volta then made them commercially available without protecting the IP. Humphry Davy, the director of the Royal Society, built a huge battery, which he found can be used to discover electrolysis and electroplating and discovered electricity is able to jump an air gap to produce light.
* André-Marie Ampère (1820): found that running a current through a wire generates a magnetic force, inventing the first electro-magnet, he then established their mathematical relationship. William Sturgeon (1825) found that wrapping a wire around a horseshoe and running a current through it created a strong electromagnetic force.
* Michael Faraday: Apprenticed under Davy. In 1821, he rotated a body around a wire coil, converting electric energy into kinetic energy (inventing the first electric motor). He established the principles of applied electrochemistry for batteries, electrolysis, and electroplating. In 1831, he found reversed the motor and generated electricity by passing a magnet through a coil of wire, creating the first generator. He also discovered electrical induction and determined that light is a form of electromagnetism by discovering the magneto-optical effect—the ability of magnetic forces to change the polarisation of light waves.
* Samuel Morse (1837/1841): invented the telegraph, incorporating Joseph Henry's electronic relay to increase efficiency. William Cooke (1837) independently invented his own telegraph in Britain. It was installed in the British Rail system in 1839, which demonstrated its potential to the rest of the world. As a result, Morse gained federal funding in 1842 and set up a 44-mile system between Washington and Baltimore, completing it in 1844 using hoisted wires (which set the standard thereafter). Morse, with the help of Alfred Vail, invented his coding system to make communications more efficient. Morse raised extensive private funding and by 1855 had laid 42,000 miles of telegraph cables. A transatlantic system was then laid in 1865 (after an earlier failure in 1855), headed by Lord Kelvin.
* Alexander Graham Bell (1874) introduced his approach to developing the 'harmonic telegraph' to transmit voice messages to Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Hubbard invested in its development and pushed Bell to complete it, which he failed at. In 1876, Hubbard learned that Elisha Gray had submitted a preliminary patent; he bribed a patent officer to accept Bell's (not yet working) patent and to file it as being received prior to Gray and to fraudulently copy a part of Gray's patent, and to rush approve the patent. Bell then used Gray’s idea of using a liquid-acid based variable electric resister to get his prototype functioning.
* James Clerk Maxwell (1873) mathematically modelled electromagnetism, later condensed to 4 equations. The equations predicted the oscillating nature of electromagnetic waves, and determined wavelength, that found they moved at the speed of light and that they could exist at any spectrum. The existence of electromagnetic waves was proven by Heinrich Hertz in 1888, when he discovered the radio wave at 300 MHz (300 million cycles every second) using transmission rods and a copper ring antenna. Hertz also proved that radio waves reflected off metal, creating the scientific foundation for radar.
* Guglielmo Marconi developed wireless telegraphy, based on Faraday’s induction principle. Marconi later recruited John Ambrose Fleming to help design a 25-kilowatt transatlantic radio system (1,800 miles). Marconi established a radio company, establishing wireless telegraphs on a number of ocean vessels (but still only transmitting Morse code).
* Thomas Edison (1870s) developed, through much trial and error, the incandescent lightbulb, based on Volta's initial design. In 1882, Edison developed the first 110V direct current (DC) power distribution system, launching a national power grid based on Fontaine's dynamo DC generator and Gramme's alternator, under the heading of the Edison General Electric Company. By 1887, there were 1 million lightbulbs in operation. However, there were distance issues with using 110V DC. Westinghouse Electric launched a high-voltage transformer-based AC system and was able to lower prices due to economies of scale and distance from urban locations. Edison responded by electrocuting animals to demonstrate the danger of AC and was eventually pushed out of his own company by the board of directors for eccentricity (the company then became just General Electric). He retired to create motion picture technology.
* Nikola Tesla in 1884, worked for Edison to improve the dynamo generators, he left bitterly after Edison reneged on a promise to pay Tesla $50,000 for improving the system. After nearly being homeless, he developed a highly-efficient multiphase AC motor, which he licensed to Westinghouse to create the multiphase AC power grid. He later went a bit coo-coo and dedicated the rest of his life to wireless electricity, fearful of death rays and communication with aliens.

Vacuum Electronics
* Joseph John Thomson (1894) conducted three experiments to explore cathode rays. Firstly, he proved they carry a negative charge. Second, he proved that electrical fields deflect cathode rays and that the cathode ray particle is the fundamental particle for electricity. Third, he proved that the cathode ray's particle mass was 1/1837th of a hydrogen ion, making it only a tiny fraction of an atom. These particles were later renamed to 'electron'. He also discovered that electrons were freed when exposed to light of a certain wavelength (the photoelectric effect). In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays and published a photo of his wife's hand to demonstrate its use.
* John Ambrose Fleming (1904) developed the vacuum diode, based on Braun's CRT and Edison's unpublished observations on unidirectional current rectification, and applied it to Marconi’s wireless receivers to enhance sensitivity. It could also convert AC to DC, kicking off the electronics age.
* Lee De Forest (1906) experimented with vacuum diodes and observed that the third electrode with its own voltage could vary the current between the cathode and anode. He called this the 'triode' and could be used for both signal amplification with minimal noise or distortion and fast instantaneous switching for digital transmissions. He later sold the patent rights to AT&T, which they used to launch the first transcontinental telephone line from New York City to San Francisco.
* Reginald Fessenden (1903) developed a method of transmitting music and voice signals through radio. He successfully transmitted a Christmas carol he played himself on his violin over 200 miles, although the technology was not leveraged. Edwin Armstrong (1914) developed the oscillator by connecting a part of the amplification triode's output back to its input to create a feedback circuit to produce high fidelity amplification, removing the need for the rotating alternator and creating consistent radio waves in the MHz range, beginning the commercial radio era and becoming a valuable tool in the war. He then sold the patent rights to Westinghouse. By 1920, the RCA was issuing commercial radio licenses to control radio bandwidth.
* John Logie Baird (1923) was the first to use Nipkow’s electromechanical scanning technology to capture a short video of a moving silhouette. By 1926. he had improved his photo-detectors to capture people without needing very bright and hot lights and could capture, transmit and project videos at five frames per second. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth used Braun's CRT-based electron beam to raster scan an image, creating an all-electronic television camera and video display. The technology was independently developed or partly stolen by RCA and established the television industry, which they spun off as NBC.
* Robert Watson-Watt highlighted how electromagnetic waves can be used to detect distant metal objects and designed a conceptual system, which he called the Radio Detection And Ranging system (RADAR). In 1935, the British military authorised the R&D of a RADAR. Watson-Watt used high power radio waves with wavelengths 20–50 MHz range, created by customised triode oscillators and could detect aircraft as far as 120 miles away, however, it did not work at detecting boats. John Randall and Harry Boot developed a custom 1 kW vacuum tube magnetron to create highly efficient 3GHz microwaves needed to detect even small objects from the air, mounted on an aircraft. It was developed further in a shared operation between Britain and the US intelligence agencies to create long-range radar and to sonar systems.
* John Mauchly (1946) developed the first non-classified computer: the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer—ENIAC, based on John Atanasoff’s binary architecture and his 280-triode prototype. However, it required 17,468 vacuum triodes, which continuously broke down, and 160 kilowatts of power. Mauchly then built the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC), which utilised von Neumann architecture based on a CPU and a binary computing system. Mauchly and Eckert then created the first commercial computer, UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer).

Solid State Electronics
* Walter Schottky (1938) developed point-contact rectifiers and found that unidirectional rectification was caused by an energy barrier that was formed at the interface of the metal and semiconductor (Shottky Barrier).
* Russell Ohl from Bell Labs investigated the role of doping impurities in pure silicon during the war by adding group III elements to create positively-charged holes, or group V elements to create negatively-charged excess electrons. This allowed for the creation of p-n junctions to create a solid-state effect similar to that of the triode. After the war, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen proved the feasibility of Shockley’s field-effect triode and created the first NP solid-state resistor (they called the transistor). Shockley, dismayed at being left out of the patent rights, spent 2 weeks thinking to develop the NPN SS germanium triode that did not rely on point-contact technology. He called this 'the will to think'.
* Gorden Teal (1949) developed a new way of mass-producing structurally perfect single-crystal semiconductors based on 'crystal pulling'. The technique was further improved in 1950 by William Pfann by adopting floating zone refining, to remove almost all impurities in the germanium. Bell labs then released the manufacturing rights in 1952, kicking off a new era in electronics.
* Gerald Pearson (1956), after Bell Labs developed gaseous impurity doping that allowed for single-crystal wafers, driving down production costs further, Pearson developed photovoltaic solar panels and shifted the semiconductor material from germanium to silicone, which was more reliable and could operate at hotter temperatures and was much cheaper to source, as it could be manufactured from sand. Teal, now working at Texas Instruments, then found a way to mass-produce silicone junction transistors, triggering the next generation of electronics.
* Shockley Semiconductors In 1955, Shockley started his own semiconductor company, which he decided to set up in his home town in Palo Alto, California. This would later lead to the birth of Silicon Valley. He hired Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore and others. However, Shockley was a poor manager and strategist and his A-star team quickly became unhappy. 8 of the most influential team members attempted a coup and were thus named the 'Traitorous Eight' by Shockley. They left in 1957 to set up Fairchild Semiconductor, supported by a new venture capital business model. Shockley's company eventually went bust and he took a faculty position at Stanford.
* Jean Hoerni, one of the Traitorous Eight, developed the planar process at Fairchild, which utilised thermally grown silicon dioxide (based on Frosch’s 1956 paper) to protect exposed p-n junctions. Noyce (1961) used this to design a fully wireless IC chip, later fabricated by Jay Last, taking Fairchild into market leadership. By 1964, these low-power chips began to permeate private industry, replacing discrete transistors.
* M. M. Atalla (1958) found that the silicon dioxide film could be used as a voltage-variable channel, based on the input voltage at the gate electrode, developing, in 1960, the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which can either be N or P channel. It was also simple and cheap to make and low power with good reliability. In 1963, Frank Wanlass and C. T. Sah at Fairchild combined n-channel and p-channel MOS transistors onto the same chip, creating the Complementary MOS (CMOS). By the mid-60s, the chips contained between 10 and 100 transistors.
* Gordon Moore (1965) worked at Fairchild and studied the growth of transistors. He found that the number of transistors on each chip product doubled every twelve months (Moore's Law). In 1961, Noyce’s first flip-flop chip employed two transistors, today (2022) the Wafer Scale Engine 2 by Cerebras has 2.6 trillion MOSFETs.
* Robert Dennard (1967) developed a memory circuit comprised of a single transistor and a tiny capacitor. The capacitor had two states: charged or not (representing 0 and 1), becoming a new form of memory, that Dennard called Dynamic Random Access Memory. In 1968, Noyce and Moore left to found Intel and focused on constructing DRAM chips. Their first product was a 1,024-bit memory, which also followed Moore's Law.
* Ted Hoff (1969) proposed the transistor-based CPU design, using that contained high-speed memory with logic. Federico Faggin, from Intel, then implemented Hoff's idea to develop the world's first 4-bit microprocessor with a transistor count of 2300 (4004). In 1974, Faggin then developed an 8-bit chip (8008), and then in 1975, they developed the 8080, which allowed for the first microcomputer (Altair 8800), which Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote BASIC for, later developing it into Microsoft. In 1976, Motorola developed a 16-bit architecture, which Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak developed into the Apple II computer. In 1981, IBM developed the first Personal Computer for home and business users.
* Heinrich Welker (1953) developed the LED by synthesizing single crystals of indium antimonide (InSb) and gallium arsenide (GaAs). 'The wavelength of this emitted light is determined by the energy gap of the semiconductor. The first LEDs were GaAs, the next round was gallium phosphide (GaP), which had a very wide energy band gap, allowing for red, amber, and green; however, blue was a challenge and prevented full spectrum saturated colour (white). This wasn't solved until 1993 when Shuji Nakamura (Nichia Corporation) developed the indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LED.
* George Heilmeier (RCA) (1968) developed the first low-voltage commercial dynamic scattering mode (DSM) LCD screen. After RCA dropped their interest in further development, Tomio Wada from Sharp, developing pocket calculators and struggling with the battery drain from LEDs, convinced the company to license the LCD. A previous RCA LCD scientist, Wolfgang Helfrich, continued his research at Hoffman-La Roche and in 1972, he discovered a new type of liquid crystal material called twisted nematic (TN), requiring only a tiny electrical charge, rather than a constant field, to maintain its opaque or clear state. In 1982, hydrogenated thin-film FETs were developed and Sharp was able to use them to develop the first LCD television, which allowed for energy-efficient thin screens, which gave rise to the laptop.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a decent number of books that cover the same information, such as The Victorian Internet , AC/DC , Empires of Light, The Network , The Idea Factory and many more, but I think this one gives the broadest overview of the trajectory from "hey there's this electricity thing I guess?" to "our world is made out of computers".

The book can be quite detailed in places, but obviously not everything is covered in intense depth, considering the breadth of the subject. Despite having read so many books on the subject, I still picked up interesting tidbits. For example, the fact that Jack Kilby only got into electronics because he was too tall to be a front line soldier in the war, or the fact that Shockley invented the bipolar junction transistor by himself in a remarkably short period of time because he was a petty and jealous person and didn't like how much attention his subordinates were getting for inventing the point contact transistor.

Some of the stuff about early IC companies was interesting as well.

3.5 of 5 stars

[Randy Stapilus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, fast history of how we learned about and made use of electricity and then electronics, and the people who made the central developments along the way. Brings a lot of history together efficiently; gave me a new perspective on it all.

[Priyadarshi Ranjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.

[Brenda Greene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a book about how the electron was conquered. It is a brief history of technological and business achievements in electrical engineering. The basic research into electrons and electricity that underpins this is only mentioned in passing.

The book is in 3 parts. First was the discovery of electromagnetism then its application in the telegraph and telephone. Grids lit homes and transformed society. Wireless technology evolved. The second part of the book outlines happy accidents that found vacuum electronics, xrays, radio, radar and computers. The third part summarises solid state electronics with semi conductor, transistors, chips, leds, lcds and chips.

There are lots of interesting stories which hint at a lot more electrical phenomena yet to be invested in as well as the huge resources required to do just that. Sometimes the discoveries have to wait decades or lifetimes for technology to evolve or the right person to take an interest.

The writing style is quaint but the content is patchy. There are lots of black and white photos of men and sometimes images of important experiments.

Technical detail is sometimes given with an explanation on how it all works but often there is no description. Occasonally the theory or equations developed that enable the tech are mentioned. Sometimes business tactics such as vertical integration and takeovers are described. Sometimes a timeline is followed, at other times vast progress is made e.g. from microwaves to GPS in a sentence.

The authors are very enthusiastic about their subject, celebrating major electrical engineering achievements and showing that most scientists or entrepreneurs get one breakthough in a life time and due to a range of factors may not be compensated fairly or even recognised for it.

The book may appeal to those interested in an overview of electrical engineering history and who have a grounding in the technical terms. It skips the science and focuses on the people who have the right mix of genius, entrepreneurship and funding to develop the tech.

[Kirsten Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading a biography of Alessandro Volta with my 12 year old, I was ready for a deeper dive into all things electricity. I selected this book since it is currently "free for members" on Audible. Conquering the Electron takes readers on a journey from the earliest electrical experimenters all the way through modern inventions of the information age.

It's fairly easy to follow, and gets just a bit into the science of each of the discoveries. If you are looking for a deep dive into the science of electricity, transistors, integrated circuits, and so on this will probably disappoint but as a series of "mini biographies" it tells an exciting story of innovation.

Cheung is trying to cover a lot of ground in this book, and especially in the most recent developments, readers are only getting a taste of the work that went into developing each type of product. Most of the 20-odd chapters of this book could each be the kernel of a full book devoted to the person or discovery featured! I was definitely left wanting to know more.

I've given this book a 4 star review, as it may have taken on a bit to broad of a scope to cover each topic with the thoroughness that it deserves.

[Tim Morrissey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book starting in late 1500s and taking us into modern age of electronics.  Covers history of electric charge, volta, faraday, maxwell, etc. Then gets into electronics that came from world wars such as radar.  Has great info on morse code and communications. Then gets into silicon for things like silicon valley which leads to modern electronics.  Moral of the story is scientist are often greedy and steal ideas. Morse code was straight up stolen from patent office. I really drew similarities from Edison to Elon Musk.  Edison was already wealthy from money transfers then got into other science. Just like musk with Paypal, then into other science.

Silicon valley had a lot of issues on beginning.  Stockley was a bit of a nut and people had to leave him.  

A good quote from this book pertaining to fiber optics: “Just as during the dawn of the semiconductor, the bottleneck lay in the material science and fabrication technology, and it was from those fields that a champion would be needed to find a breakthrough”. p307

[Soubhagya Nayak · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Conquering the Electron” covers the history of electricity and electronics. It starts from static charges and magnetism. In a chronological order, it gradually covers the great discoveries and inventions related to electricity, the innovators and the business and social landscape. It ends the narration with mobile phones. The authors have tried to limit the technical description to the minimum to make the book suitable for common audience. Still they have tried to cover the basic concepts well. They have put more focus on the engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs and their behaviors. They have covered the social landscape during the innovations well. They have also covered the business and legal aspects of these innovations.
I like both history and science. So, I found the content very engaging. I think teaching scientific inventions and discoveries with its historical context makes those easy to understand. On the other hand, keeping the historical context out not only makes the topic dull, but also tough to grasp.

[John Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ideological masturbation in chapter 18 was jarring and unnecessary. But I guess he felt the need to defend Capitalism because, without it, the book could be read as a scathing criticism of the system. Simply describing honestly the underhanded behavior of the Capitalists throughout the historical development of electronic technology naturally leads one to question the moral acceptability of the system that enables it. I particularly gawked remembering the directness with which the authors described the way the enthusiasm of the “traitorous eight” died when they were forced to sell their shares while in chapter 18.

Otherwise, it was a wonderful instructive volume on the basics of electrical technology. I was able to understand many things through the lens of history. Concepts that I failed to grasp in my attempts to become educated on them through a purely physics-based examination

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book with a lot of detail and many great stories from history.
Unfortunately, the author puts to much of their Opinion in it, for it to be a great book.
For one thing the author rants obsequious about Edison! Why doesn't he know that Edison used people to be the great inventor that he was (said to be)!
Then there's the author's history at Fairchild and his belief the Computer History revolved around uP based computers in the 80s... the only computing before that was ENIAC (which worked for a few seconds) and EDVAC which the author omits much detail on... Hey Buddy, there's a lot more than the companies you mentioned between EDVAC and Intel's 4004 uP (which BTW Is Not a SOC).
Ok, so there were (more than) a few problems... Otherwise a readable book I'd recommend.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chances are you have a smartphone, so take it out and look at it. Seriously ponder the majestic and amazing technology woven into your phone. Your device didn't come from nothing; a factory constructed it from materials and knowledge gleaned over the past few centuries.

Conquering the Electron covers the practical and theoretical breakthroughs contributing to the electronics industry. It is an outstanding resource.

My only issue with the book is the font size. Perhaps I am getting old.

Thank you for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Alexey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book. It is well narrated and is based on thorough research. What I particularly liked about the book is the retrospective analysis of the inventors' and investors' blunders. Aside from just telling stories of invention and progress, the books illustrates how really difficult and uncertain the process of scientific discovery and its further industrial exploitation really is.

[Ivan Mitrovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you want to understand how something works, you must first understand how it got that way. Simply put, everything is the way it is, because it got that way. This is a good book that explains how today’s world of electronics got that way.

[Ryan Handley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! The vast bulk of this book was topics pre-WW2 which I found way more interesting due to the tech limitations at the time and the ingenuity of the researchers.

The positivity around Intel and its stature are at odds with the situation the company finds itself in at the moment.

[Jonathan Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't imagine the effort it took to compile all these stories, but it took me a full year just to read and understand the whole thing-- and I loved every minute of it. The history of electronics is absolutely incredible, and the future is even brighter.

[Nick Harriss · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book. Similar to but not as entertaining as "The Chip War" and rather broader in scope, providing a good history of developments in electricity well before the electronic age, as well more modern, non-semi conductor areas such as LCD and fibre optics. Well worth a read.

[Carl Paperiello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I am a physicist and technology interests me. This book explains much of the financing and marketing behind electrical and electronic inventions of the 19th and 20 century.

[Srivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, this is a great read.

[Ragavan Nagaratnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. If you like physics, history and entrepreneurship. This is the book for you.

[Subjuntivo Subjuntivo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather biased and pro murica, but still interesting for some facts/data.

[Owen Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fascinating. This one has really stuck with me since I read it. I may have to read it again. The way they follow the discoveries and the path to actual products is fantastic.

[Hind · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It does a great job at drawing the line from the early electrical innovations to those of the world we live in today.

[Benjamin Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. The author covered a tremendous amount of ground from Tesla and Edison, to the personalities behind the transistor’s birth, to Semiconductors and present day Technology.
Absolutely not easy to cover this much ground and he did it justice by discussing the personalities in an unbiased and interesting way as well.

[J.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find science interesting, boy is this ever the book for you. Dealing with electronics but ranging from the discovery of static electricity to the iPhones of today, the authors do a fantastic job. Close to 100 scientists are portrayed and there's not a dry recitation of facts anywhere. Instead it's filled with stories of the people behind the inventions without a lot of unnecessary details but enough to make the information informative and interesting. If you'd like to know how we went from the behemoth ENIAC to the laptop computers of today or the corporate battles for domination in the early days of television and radio it's all here in non-technical prose that even someone who doesn't know a microchip from a potato chip can enjoy. One of the best books on science I've ever read.

[Tami R Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating read. Cheung manages to explain the most recent technological advances with as much erudition as he does with earlier and more familiar ones. One does not have to be a technical genius to enjoy this book but simply have a sense of wonder and curiosity about how we got to where we are today. I highly recommend this book.

[John Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot better than I thought it would be. Very interesting and very accessible for people who know nothing about electronics.

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice summary of the various scientists and engineers involved with electrons. Final third is marred by a boring diversion into Silicon Valley politics.