Word: silicones
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...chlorophyll is arranged in flat disks like piles of plates. Biologists suspected that this delicate laminated structure had something to do with photosynthesis, but they could not make sense out of it until Bell Telephone Laboratories invented its solar battery, an electronic device made of thin layers of treated silicon. When sunlight hits the battery, it knocks electrons out of one of the silicon layers. Caught by another silicon layer, the electrons turn into a useful electric current. Hearing about this principle, Dr. Calvin and other scientists speculated that the thin layers of chlorophyll might capture light energy in somewhat...
...battery. The Kidde-Elgin battery sidesteps this difficulty by mixing the promethium 147 with a phosphor (light-giving substance) and enclosing the mixture in transparent plastic. Electrons from the Pm-147 make the phosphor glow, and its light is turned into electricity by a photoelectric surface of silicon on each side of the plastic wafer. No electrons escape from the plastic, and so the silicon is not damaged...
...magnesium sphere surrounds a canister of instruments, batteries and components of the small radio transmitter that will send information back to earth. When ready for space, the magnesium will be plated, first with gold, then with aluminum, then with a final thin layer of a silicon compound. Small amounts of gold will be used as solder to stick the magnesium and aluminum together...
Another Bell breakthrough in 1948 was the discovery, after years of basic research into the structure of matter, that a solid metal such as germanium or silicon (earth's most abundant solid element) can be made to act like a vacuum tube, i.e., it will amplify an electric signal. Result: the flea-size transistor−and a king-size new industry. Thirty-five manufacturers have already turned out 7,000,000 transistors v. 1 billion vacuum tubes now in use in the U.S., are doubling output each year. Transistors will multiply the speed of future telephone exchanges...
...Powered Radio. A transistor radio that gets its power from either batteries or the sun's rays was demonstrated by Admiral Corp. To convert the radio to sun power, a small box-shaped unit containing silicon is plugged into the back. The unit absorbs sun rays and transforms them into electrical energy. Placed by a window or in a sunny place, it can gather and store enough energy to operate the radio even on overcast days. The radio will go on sale next month at $59.95, the sun unit...