In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 10 February 1902
- Died
- 13 October 1987
- Birthplace
- Amoy, China
- Country
- United States
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Semiconductor surface researcher.
- Laboratory career
- Bell Labs from 1929
Why this life matters
His contribution places experimental craft and material preparation alongside theoretical explanation, with teaching forming part of a longer scientific career.
Timeline
Key moments
Laboratory appointment
Joined Bell Labs.
A working device
Point-contact transistor work with Bardeen.
Teaching
Became adjunct professor at Whitman.
Formation across several institutions
Born in Amoy, China, Brattain grew up in Washington State. He earned degrees at Whitman College in 1924, Oregon in 1926 and Minnesota in 1929. The last was his doctorate. He joined Bell Labs in 1929 and built a career investigating what happens at the surfaces of solids.
Sources for this section: [1]
Materials and an experimental craft
Early research on tungsten and adsorbed layers led into rectification and photo-effects at semiconductor surfaces. His Nobel biography identifies collaborations first with John Bardeen and later with C.G.B. Garrett and P.J. Boddy. The career therefore extends beyond the single device for which he is most widely remembered.
Brattain’s 1956 lecture explicitly credits teachers and materials researchers. He names R.S. Ohl, J.H. Scaff and H.C. Theuerer, whose work supplied and clarified the materials used by the transistor researchers. He also recalls starting under J.A. Becker. Experimental capability depended on that accumulated expertise.
A specific device, a wider programme
The Computer History Museum dates the Bardeen–Brattain point-contact transistor to December 1947. Bardeen’s later account distinguishes the successful arrangement from earlier tests that gave voltage response without power amplification. This sequence matters more than treating any changed current as proof that an amplifier had been achieved.
Teaching and scientific recognition
The Franklin Institute’s record identifies its 1952 Ballantine award and Brattain’s 1967 appointment as adjunct professor at Whitman. Returning to teaching belongs in the account alongside laboratory work. He died on 13 October 1987.
His research shows why an experiment’s meaning cannot be read from a single impressive number. A material, an electrical arrangement, a measurement and an interpretation must be connected. The accompanying exercise isolates one of those distinctions without presenting a fictional circuit as a reconstruction of his device.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Walter Brattain
- Are current gain and power gain interchangeable?
- No. The fictional example defines voltage, current and power separately and asks which ratios actually establish increased signal power.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- John Bardeen
Read the theoretical career beside the experimental one.
- Robert Noyce
Explore a later stage in the organisation of electronic devices.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Nobel Foundation; edited in Nobel Lectures 1964, later death noticeWalter H. Brattain: Biographical
The source preserves the historical place-name Amoy. Its old current affiliations are not 2026 claims.
- 2. The Franklin InstituteWalter H. Brattain
- 3. Walter H. Brattain; Nobel lecture 11 December 1956Surface Properties of Semiconductors
- 4. John Bardeen; Nobel lecture 11 December 1956Semiconductor Research Leading to the Point Contact Transistor
Only selected lecture pages were read, including the experimental sequence on printed 338–339.
- 5. Computer History Museum, The Silicon Engine1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor