Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age

Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (1997) is a book by science historians Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson about the creation of modern solid-state electronics, starting with the transistor, and moving on to the integrated circuit. Reviews described it as "an absorbing, historically precise narrative", and "an important book".[1][2]

Of particular note is a detailed history (in Chapter 6, "The Fourth Column") of the accidental discovery of the p–n junction by Russell Ohl at Bell Labs in early 1940; this is the key discovery that enabled the whole field of solid-state electronics. The book also contains biographical information on Ohl and others who do not have biographies, as well as people like Walter Brattain, William Shockley and others, who do.