"Whatever happened /To Tuesday and so slow/Going down the old mine/With a transistor radio."
Van Morrison, "Brown Eyed Girl"
When the transistor first appeared in 1947, few could have guessed how it would quickly transform the world of consumer electronics. The transistor was the size of a fingernail, weighed practically nothing, and was a direct replacement for the bulky, delicate electricity-powered glass valve. Suddenly, electronic circuitry was able to shrink to a fraction of its former size and be powered by small DC (direct current) batteries.
The first popular consumer product to take advantage of this miniaturization was the transistor radio. Although there had been a number of small portable models appearing at trade fairs in Europe and Japan, the 1954 Regency TR-1 was the first to go into mass production. The technology behind the Regency transistor radio came from an innovative U.S. electronics corporation, Texas Instruments. They had designed and built a prototype model, but sought an established radio manufacturer to develop and market their circuits. Now viewed as something of an icon of 1950s design, the TR-1 went on sale for just under $50, which at today's value is approximately $400 dollars—making it by no means a cheap product.
The transistor radio became hugely popular in the 1960s, by which time cheap imports from the Far East meant it could be bought for well under $10. It created the fashion for portable audio—now you could listen to music on the beach, in the garden, or walking down the street. Most "trannies" also came with an earpiece, so you could listen in private. It was the first step along a path that would lead to the Sony Walkman personal stereo and the Apple iPod, both essential accessories for their respective generations.
