Retro Electro: The Untold Stories of Electronics History
David Ray
Retro-Electro is a long-form article series for Digikey's magazine 'We Get Technical.'
Each of these will have stories you've never heard before.
Builder of Tomorrow: Reginald Fessenden's Legacy in Radio and Beyond
At the dawn of the twentieth century, amid a whirlwind of invention and rivalry, Reginald Fessenden emerged as a visionary who dared to make the airwaves sing. Born in a quiet Canadian village in 1866, this man transformed the crackle of Morse code into the world's first voice radio broadcast, sending music and words across the Atlantic in 1906. From doing research for Edison’s labs to doing research on the battlefields of World War I, Fessenden’s relentless pursuit of innovation—spanning radio, sonar, and beyond—reshaped communication and exploration.
The Spark Salesman: From Scintilla to Amphenol Aerospace
Amphenol Aerospace is now the largest division of the Amphenol Company, but it originally started as a company known for making the finest aircraft magnetos available, revolutionizing the entire airline industry and enabling transatlantic air travel. This is the story of the Scintilla Magento Company.
Wildman Whitehouse and the Twenty-Five Hundred Mile Long Capacitor
Wildman Whitehouse was a medical doctor and a self-taught electrician whose ambition ultimately led to pioneering achievements and significant failures. He put himself in the world of engineers and scientists, but he was neither. You will not find statues of this man. He was not knighted or celebrated. There are no places of honor bearing his name. Within weeks of the cable’s installation, he was exposed as a fraud, a fool, and a con man. Wildman Whitehouse was a nineteenth-century Elizabeth Holmes. His ‘experiments’ sunk the world’s first million-dollar business endeavor, The Atlantic Cable of 1858.
A Sea of Logic Waiting For Someone to Shape It: From Signetics to Xilinx
A Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit that can be programmed to replace large groups of digital logic circuits. In the 1970s, as early ‘computers’ were being designed, they relied heavily on the 7400-Series TTL chips to implement every piece of combinational and sequential logic, resulting in boards populated with dozens or even hundreds of ‘small’ logic ICs. FPGAs would eventually collapse these into a single monolithic IC. This is the story that lead to the first FPGA.
Steel and Steam: The Most Important Tool of the 19th Century
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was headlong into a technological revolution powered by steel, steam, and a new spirit of industrial ingenuity. Among the many mechanical breakthroughs of the era, few tools would prove as vital – and as enduring – as the Stillson wrench. Born from the challenges of maintaining steamships under fire and forged in the workshops of Boston, the Stillson wrench transformed pipe fitting forever. This story follows the remarkable journey of Daniel Stillson, a Civil War sailor turned inventor, and the creation of a tool so influential that it earned its place alongside the greatest innovations of all time.
Five-Five-Five: The Story of Interdesign Inc.
Interdesign was founded by a designer who was laid off from Signetics in 1970. With Hans Camenzind's design of the 555 timer IC, the company became a multimillion-dollar success, creating many impactful technology products. This is Interdesign's story.
Motorola's Sound in Motion
Motorola has played a significant role in the twentieth century. From the first marketed car radio to the first lunar lander, Motorola, like Bell Laboratories, became an industrial research laboratory with applied science research, development, and manufacturing all under one roof. This led to the creation of two-way radios, police radios, pager systems, satellite systems, and even unique discrete semiconductors, microprocessors, and other components, but it all really started with a car radio. This is the story of Bill Lear and the first Motorola radio.
'Ohm's Day' or 'How The World Fell in Love With The Ohm'
Ever wondered about the origin of the Ohm (Ω)? This crucial unit of electrical resistance has a fascinating history that connects science and innovation.
Electricity or Ethereal Fire Considered
'Electricity or Ethereal Fire Considered' is the first 'MedTech' book written in the New World. Dr. T. Gale's book discusses how to cure various ailments with electricity, ranging from dysentery to madness.
The Blade That Breaks the Circuit: The AutoFuse Story
The fuse’s core innovation, a sacrificial element that melts to halt dangerous currents, emerged from Louis Breguet’s 1847 lightning-struck telegraph, where a thin wire protected equipment and personnel, predating Thomas Edison’s 1890 cartridge-style ‘Fuse-Block’ by decades, which enclosed the wire for safer use in lighting circuits. This progression accelerated with Littelfuse’s 1927 tiny, fast-blowing fuses for sensitive devices and the 1970s ATO blade fuses, solving corrosion and space constraints in vehicles, alongside European torpedo fuses from the 1930s. As electrical systems grow more complex in renewable energy and EVs, the fuse’s story highlights how front-loading safety through self-destruction has prevented countless hazards since electrification’s dawn.
William Stanley Jr. Legacy in Electrical Engineering
Many names are lost to history or overshadowed by industry giants. Stanley remains remembered, not for reasons one might think. He held 129 patents, mainly in electrical devices. While known for his all-metal, vacuum-sealed coffee cup, his key contribution was the AC power transformer, patent #349,611, which revolutionized power transmission and became the prototype for future transformers.
Engineering Silence: The Telephone and the Negative Feedback Amplifier
There was a time when terrible noise and distortion were just part of voice communication. A series of telephone amplifiers, spread across the country, each one amplifying distortions and adding its own. It took a man named Harold Black to solve this problem. This is the story of the Negative Feedback Amplifier.
Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle
Before there were multimeters, there was the galvanometer. Born from Ørsted’s magnetic needle experiment and refined by Schweigger, Ampère, and Ohm, the galvanometer became the 19th century’s essential instrument for detecting and measuring electricity. This is the story of the Galvanometer.
The ALOHA System: Task II (BCC-500)
The ALOHA Net was the first 'wireless internet.' It was government-funded, and the second task on the funding grant revolved around a very obscure computer, from a bankrupt company, and how they had to make it work. This is the story of the BCC-500.
The Origin of Discrete Semiconductor Part Designators
Have you ever wondered how some parts got their part number? 1N4001? 2N2222? That story started over 100 years ago. This is the Discrete Semiconductor Part Designation Origin Story.
Frank J Sprague and the Richmond Union Passenger Railway
Frank Sprague is credited for making the first practical electric vehicle. Fights with Edison, General Electric, and over elevators. This is Frank J Sprague and the Union Passenger Railway.
Programming a Calculator to Form Concepts
In the summer of 1955, Dr. John McCarthy began his role as an assistant professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College. Historians credit McCarthy with coining the term “Artificial Intelligence” in a proposal submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation. This is the story of that proposal. Programming a Calculator to Form Concepts.
Programming a Calculator to Form Concepts: Part 2 - The Organizers of the Dartmouth Summer Research Project
As a follow-up to an article on the proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project, the reader is presented with four brief biographies of the four organizers of the project.
The Automation Revolution: The Modicon 084
The first programmable controller was not considered a computer at the time. Lore has it that, during the design process, any notes that had the word ‘computer’ on them were balled up and thrown away on sight. At the time, ‘computer’ was a four-letter word that took an entire wing of a building to maintain and a monthly air conditioning bill that would make any bean counter cry. This was still years before the release of the Intel 4004 or the MOS 6502.
Genius and Tragedy: The Life of Ampere
Did you know that Ampere was orphaned as a child when Revolutionaries publicly executed his father, who served as the Justice of the Peace in their town? Ampere's life was struck by tragedy over and over again, leaving him with crippling anxiety and depression.
From Kerosene to Kilowatts: The Story of Rural Electrification
Electricity is taken for granted today, as it should be, but that was not the case a hundred years ago. The story of rural America’s emergence from the darkness is one of ingenuity, determination, and the people's collective will to bring electricity to every corner of the nation. It’s the story of rural electrification, beginning in the dim glow of the 19th century.
The Birth of the Microprocessor and Chuck Peddle
The cultural impact of the 6502 microprocessor is monumental and regarded as one of civilization’s most significant inventions. Unlike most chips that fade into obscurity, the 6502 has stood the test of time, remaining a crucial pillar of microprocessing for fifty years. Its legacy continues to influence technology, making it an essential part of our technological heritage.
Two Centuries of Innovation (1826-2026) (2026 New Year Special)
Happy New Year. 2026 is here and it marks two hundred years since Ampère first published his new Theories of Electro-Dynamics, essentially creating the new field of the study of electricity. As tribute to that event, the writer has collected twenty events, one for each decade, that came and shaped the coming years.
