Technicians maintained thousands of failure-prone vacuum tubes until transistors and integrated circuits replaced them.
Vacuum-tube computer technician no longer exists as a living trade. Here is what erased it, and which profession took on the work.
1900–1946
A theory of the small
Physicists built quantum mechanics to explain atoms, radiation and matter. Its methods became indispensable to later electronics.
What else was happening then
1900
Planck introduces quanta
Max Planck proposes energy quanta in his radiation theory.
1905
Einstein explains photoelectric effect
Light quanta help explain why light ejects electrons from metals.
1926
Quantum mechanics formalizes
Schrödinger and others establish wave mechanics and its mathematical tools.
1947
Transistor demonstrated
Bell Labs engineers demonstrate the point-contact transistor.
Where that work lives now
Builds, measures and controls devices that exploit quantum states for computing, sensing, communication and materials research.
🧿 Quantum Engineer →