Editing John Bardeen (section)

===Invention of the transistor===
{{main|Transistor|History of the transistor}}
[[File:Replica-of-first-transistor.jpg|thumb|340px|A stylized replica of the first transistor invented at Bell Labs on December 23, 1947]]

On December 23, 1947, Bardeen and Brattain were working without Shockley when they succeeded in creating a [[point-contact transistor]] that achieved amplification. By the next month, [[Bell Labs]]' patent attorneys started to work on the patent applications.<ref name="John Bardeen 2">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/bardeen/bardeen2.html |title=Biography of John Bardeen 2 |access-date=December 24, 2007 |publisher=PBS }}</ref>

Bell Labs' attorneys soon discovered that Shockley's field effect principle had been anticipated and patented in 1930 by [[Julius Lilienfeld]], who filed his [[MESFET]]-like patent in Canada on October 22, 1925.<ref>{{patent|US|1745175|"Method and apparatus for controlling electric current" first filing in Canada on October 22, 1925}}</ref>

Shockley publicly took the lion's share of the credit for the invention of the transistor; this led to a deterioration of Bardeen's relationship with him.<ref>Diane Kormos Buchwald. ''American Scientist'' 91.2 (Mar.–Apr. 2003): 185–186.</ref> Bell Labs management, however, consistently presented all three inventors as a team. Shockley eventually infuriated and alienated Bardeen and Brattain, essentially blocking the two from working on the junction transistor. Bardeen began pursuing a theory for superconductivity and left Bell Labs in 1951. Brattain refused to work with Shockley further and was assigned to another group. Neither Bardeen nor Brattain had much to do with the development of the transistor beyond the first year after its invention.<ref>''Crystal Fire'' p. 278</ref><ref>R. Kessler. "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1997/04/06/absent-at-the-creation/2a432ee5-b1e3-49b9-93f2-ad821d1832dd/ Absent at the Creation]", ''Washington Post Magazine'', 1997.</ref>

The "transistor" (a [[portmanteau]] of "transconductance" and "resistor") was 1/50 the size of the [[vacuum tube]]s it replaced in televisions and radios, used far less power, was far more reliable, and it allowed electrical devices to become more compact.<ref name="washpost"/>