The Business of Electronics: A Concise History

221 Pages·2013·1.505 MB·English

by  Anand Kumar Sethi

The Business of Electronics
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The Business of Electronics
A Concise History
Anand Kumar Sethi
THE BUSINESS OF ELECTRONICS
Copyright © Anand Kumar Sethi, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–33042–0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sethi, Anand Kumar.
The business of electronics : a concise history / Anand Kumar Sethi.
pages cm
ISBN 978–1–137–33042–0 (hardback)
1. Electronics industry—History. I. Title.
HD9696.A2S48 2013
338.4(cid:2)7621381—dc23 2013024804
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: November 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to all those who so lovingly and tenderly looked
after me during my recent face off with near death and extensive
hospitalization. My family, in particular Deepa, whose abounding
love, devotion, and care saw me through those very difficult times.
The nurse, Sister Rajwant, who looked after me so well for days, in the
intensive care ward always ready with not only injections, intravenous
drips, electrodes, wires, tubes, and other instruments of torture, but also
comforting words of great encouragement. Dr. Santosh Kutty, whose
first timely intervention and assistance made it possible for me to fight
for life. But above all, this book is dedicated to my doctor, Atul Joshi,
without whose medical skills and ministrations I would not have lived
to write this book. Undoubtedly, a superb surgeon but an even better
human being!
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Contents
Preface i x
1 Introduction 1
2 The Early Years: Telegraphy and Telephony 9
3 Wireless and Radio 21
4 Television 37
5 World War II: Radar, Sonar, Cryptography, and Beyond 49
6 Computers and Computing 61
7 Media Recorders/Players, Mobile Phones, Smart Devices,
and Tablets 87
8 Computer Networks and the Internet 113
9 “Chips” and Displays 131
Appendix 1 Company Histories in Brief: The Pioneers of Telegraphy,
Telephony, Wireless, Radio, and Television 1 55
Appendix 2 Principal Entities Associated with Thomas Alva Edison
and Their Timeline 1 65
Appendix 3 Principal Entities Associated with Alexander Graham
Bell and Their Timeline 1 69
Appendix 4 Principal Entities Associated with Guglielmo Marconi
and Their Timeline 1 71
Appendix 5 Timeline—Offshoring of Semiconductor Assembly 1 73
Notes 175
Index 189
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Preface
Some years ago, an international television network flashed a fan-
tastic photograph of an Indian ascetic merrily chatting on his
mobile telephone while attending a Hindu religious event, one
of the largest congregations of humankind held every six years. At that
time, unsurprisingly, the photograph created quite a sensation. Today,
given the all-pervasive presence of mobile phones, of all sizes and speci-
fications used by global multitudes, such a photograph one suspects,
would hardly raise any eyebrows.
Electronic gadgets and other appliances and systems using electron-
ics ranging from the transistor radio, television, remote controllers,
cameras, and vehicles through to the latest iPod, smart phones, and
tablets have indeed become so ubiquitous that most of us do not give
even a passing thought to what are the origins and the history of this life
altering phenomenon called “electronics.”
My own fascination with electronics began as a young boy growing
up in a small Indian town in the early 1950s. Our first telephone was
one where you had to crank a lever to gain attention of an operator at
the telephone exchange. The diaphragms in the earpiece as well as the
“talk” unit were the size of a carrom board “striker.” Our music at home
came from a hand wound “gramophone” turntable on which a thick
Bakelite-based 78-rpm record was placed and a pointed needle stylus
moved through the recording grooves giving out the music, courtesy of
an apology of a “speaker” system.
But one day my world changed! Our old two-band mains-operated
radio with a fascinating green colored tuning “eye” was replaced by a
huge, unbranded, multiband radio set acquired as a surplus piece off
a decommissioned World War II (WWII) vintage US naval ship. The
world’s radio stations broadcasting on shortwave frequencies were now
my constant companions. Even more fascinating however was the sight
of the multiple brightly glowing vacuum tubes, gang condensers, wire