Bellz Theorem, 3: Enough Glory
Christmas week, 1947: Walter Brattain builds it, John Bardeen works it out on paper, and their supervisor wants his own name on the patent. It opens in hi-fi on the point-contact transistor as a diagram: a small signal in at one gold point, a bigger one out at the other. On screen and true: the demonstration of 23 December 1947 showed a power gain of about 18 (Brattain's notebook), and the patent, US 2,524,035, names Bardeen and Brattain only, filed 17 June 1948. Labelled liberties: the credit talks came early in 1948 and are folded into Christmas week; The Supervisor is a made-up composite, not a real person; Shannon's unicycle in the hallway; the three cups at the cooler are a hope, not a scene (the three shared one cordial evening after the 1956 Nobel). Dot, Gus and Mr. Pruitt are made up, and the Labs carry no marks. Song: Enough Glory, made for the show (ACE-Step).
True story Every fact on screen was checked before release (2026-10-28). The dialogue is invented.
Cast
8
Sources
- PBS, Transistorized!: the miracle month, December 1947
- Linda Hall Library: Walter Brattain (his notebook on the 23 December demonstration)
- Physics and Communications (Bell System Memorial): a speech amplifier with a power gain of 18, 23 December 1947
- Brinkman, Haggan and Troutman, A history of the invention of the transistor, IEEE JSSC 32 (1997)
- US Patent 2,524,035: Bardeen and Brattain, filed 17 June 1948
- PBS, Transistorized!: patent battles
- PBS, Transistorized!: clashing egos
