Semiconductor
Semiconductors were being studied in laboratories as early as the 1830s. In 1833 Michael Faraday was experimenting with silver sulfide. He discovered that as the material was heated it conducted electricity better. This was the opposite of how copper acted. When copper is heated it conducts less electricity. A number of other early experimenters discovered other properties of semiconductors. In 1947 at Bell Labs in New Jersey, the transistor was invented. This led to the development of integrated circuits, which power almost all electronic devices today.