The Electronics Revolution: Inventing the Future

✍ Scribed by J.B. Williams

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Series: Springer Praxis Books
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book is about how electronics, computing, and telecommunications have profoundly changed our lives – the way we work, live, and play. It covers a myriad of topics from the invention of the fundamental devices, and integrated circuits, through radio and television, to computers, mobile telephones and GPS. Today our lives are ruled by electronics as they control the home and computers dominate the workspace. We walk around with mobile phones and communicate by email. Electronics didn’t exist until into the twentieth century.

The industrial revolution is the term usually applied to the coming of steam, railways and the factory system. In the twentieth century, it is electronics that has changed the way we gather our information, entertain ourselves, communicate and work. This book demonstrates that this is, in fact, another revolution.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Introduction....Pages 1-4
Missed Opportunities: The Beginnings of Electronics....Pages 5-14
From Wireless to Radio....Pages 15-23
Seeing by Electricity: Development of Television....Pages 24-36
Seeing a Hundred Miles: Radar....Pages 37-46
The ‘Box’: Television Takes Over....Pages 47-56
Spinning Discs: Recorded Music....Pages 57-68
The Crystal Triode: The Transistor....Pages 69-80
Pop Music: Youth Culture in the 1950s and 1960s....Pages 81-86
From People to Machines: The Rise of Computers....Pages 87-96
Chips into Everything: Integrated Circuits....Pages 97-107
From Signboards to Screens: Displays....Pages 108-117
Distributing Time: Clocks and Watches....Pages 118-125
From Desktop to Pocket: Calculators....Pages 126-135
Shrinking Computers: Microprocessors....Pages 136-144
Instant Cooking: Microwave Ovens....Pages 145-152
Essentials or Toys: Home Computers....Pages 153-161
Computers Take Over the Workplace....Pages 162-170
From Clerks to Xerography: Copiers....Pages 171-179
Shrinking the World: Communication Satellites....Pages 180-193
Personal Communicators: Mobile Phones....Pages 194-204
Going Online: The Internet....Pages 205-214
Glass to the Rescue: Fiber Optics....Pages 215-225
Towards Virtual Money: Cards, ATMs and PoS....Pages 226-233
Saving TV Programmes: Video Recording....Pages 234-242
Electronics Invades Photography: Digital Cameras....Pages 243-250
Seeing Inside the Body: Electronics Aids Medicine....Pages 251-259
Knowing Where You Are: GPS....Pages 260-269
The Electronics Revolution....Pages 270-274
Back Matter....Pages 275-284

✦ Subjects

Popular Science in Technology;History of Technology;Electrical Engineering;Physics of Energy Technology;History of Computing;Media and Communication