Word: indium
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...when the metals are held at different temperatures. Since such a system has no moving parts, the thermocouple is theoretically an ideal way to generate electricity. Catch has been that most suitable materials cannot stand the high temperatures needed to generate thermoelectric power on a large scale. By combining indium (a soft, silvery metal used in dental alloys) with arsenic and phosphorus, the Westinghouse researchers developed a new chemical compound that performed thermoelectrically at temperatures between 850° F. and 1,500° F., achieved an estimated 10% efficiency. Compared to the 40% efficiency of the biggest electric generators...
Last week Philco Corp. announced that it has licked this production bottleneck by a delicate electrochemical method of "machining" germanium. Two hair-thin streams of a liquid indium salt are squirted at opposite sides of a tiny slab of germanium. The streams carry an electric current, and their electrified liquid slowly dissolves the germanium. When they have almost drilled through the slab, leaving only a few ten-thousandths of an inch, the current is quickly reversed. The drilling stops, and the reversed current deposits metallic indium on both sides of the thin germanium wafer. The result is a transistor with...