Google recently digitized all of the back issues of Popular Science. In the September 1948 issue, they ran an article on the new electronic device the transistor. This could be the first article in a commercial publication on the transistor.
Here are a couple of quotes:
- “The device that may start a revolution in electronics is smaller than a paper match.”
- “Whether transistors will ever replace the vacuum tubes in your home radio will probably depend most on how much it costs to make them.
Now, of course, transistors are on the order of microns, and in integrated circuits cost a small fraction of a penny. And all this happened in about sixty years.