Walter Houser Brattain Walter Houser Brattain Walter Houser Brattain (; February 10, 1902 – October 13, 1987) was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the point-contact transistor in December 1947. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention. Brattain devoted much of his life to research on surface states. Walter Brattain was born in Xiamen, Fujian, China, to American parents Ross R. Brattain and Ottilie Houser Brattain. Ross R. Brattain was a teacher at the Ting-Wen Institute, a private school for Chinese boys. Both parents were graduates of Whitman
Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions is a boxed set by XTC released in 1998, just two months prior to "Apple Venus Volume 1". Tracks on the first two discs are culled from various BBC radio sessions the group performed on over the years, notably for John Peel and David Jensen. Discs three and four are live recordings, the latter of which was previously released as "BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert". "Opening Speech" from the first disc is Andy Partridge imitating John Peel. All songs written by Andy Partridge,