In 1948, three scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrated the transistor.
Besides explaining that the transistor could probably replace the vacuum tube, little was said of the transistor’s future applications. The scientists, John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley, were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work.
Learn more at http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/bigannouncement.html