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Walter Brattain Facts & Worksheets

Walter Brattain was an American physicist at Bell Labs who invented the point-contact transistor together with scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley.

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Walter Brattain was an American physicist at Bell Labs who invented the point-contact transistor together with scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley. For their invention, they received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Brattain focused on researching surface states for much of his life and career.

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Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • Walter Houser Brattain was born on February 10, 1902 in Amoy, China.
  • Walter’s father, Ross R. Brattain, was a teacher at the Ting-Wen Institute, a private school for boys in China.
  • Walter’s mother, Ottilie Houser Brattain, was a skilled mathematician.
  • Upon his family’s return to the United States in 1903, Walter spent much of his early life in Washington.
  • He was raised on a cattle ranch owned by his parents which was located near Tonasket, Washington.
  • Walter attended high school in Washington.
  • In 1924, he obtained his B.S. degree in physics and mathematics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
  • In 1926, Walter earned his Master of Arts degree from the University of Oregon.
  • Afterwards, he went on to get his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Minnesota, studying quantum mechanics under American physicist and Nobel Prize winner John Hasbrouck Van Vleck.
  • Walter’s thesis was on electron impact in mercury vapor and was supervised by John T. Tate.
  • He obtained his Ph.D. in physics in 1929.

SCIENTIFIC CAREER

  • From 1928 to 1929, he worked at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C.
  • In August 1929, he was hired as a research physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs).
  • His field of research was the surface properties of solids, particularly materials and their atomic structure at the surface.
  • Together with research physicist Joseph A. Becker, Brattain worked on the surface state, work function, and adsorbed layers of tungsten.
  • He went on to conduct research in the field of photo-effect at the free surface of semiconductors, exploring rectification at the surface of cuprous oxide and silicon. Such was one of his chief contributions to solid state physics.
  • During World War II, Brattain shifted his efforts into researching new ways of detecting submarines, as part of an association with the National Defense Research Council at Columbia University.
  • Brattain returned to Bell Labs after the war.
  • In 1945, Bell Labs, in the midst of reorganizing, set up a group tasked to conduct fundamental research in solid state physics, in relation to communications technologies.
  • The research group was led by William Shockley and shortly joined by John Bardeen. Both of whom were American physicists.
  • Brattain and Bardeen are said to have had a compatible working relationship, as Brattain’s strengths were application and experimentation, while Bardeen’s forte was analytical processes.
  • In December 1947, Brattain and Bardeen successfully built a device that serves as a semiconductor amplifier, which was the point-contact transistor.
  • The point-contact transistor was similar to a vacuum tube but smaller and more reliable.
  • Shortly thereafter, William Shockley devised the junction transistor, which resulted in little commercial use for Brattain and Bardeen’s invention.
  • Despite their success as a group, their relationship was strained due to Shockley’s name not being included on the patent for the point-contact transistor, being their senior.
  • Brattain and Bardeen argued that they had devised their invention independently, and so only their names appeared on the patent.
  • Nonetheless, the three researchers appeared in a series of publicity photos.
  • In 1956, Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the transistor effect and research on semiconductors.
  • As a result of the withstanding rift among the researchers, Bardeen soon left Bell Labs altogether and worked at the University of Illinois where he eventually won a second Nobel Prize for his theory of superconductivity.
  • Brattain later transferred to a different research group, working with C. G. B. Garrett, and P. J. Boddy.
  • Brattain continued to study the surface properties of solids and semiconductor behavior, particularly the transistor effect.
  • Brattain left Bell Labs in 1967 and subsequently became a professor at Whitman College from 1967 to 1972, then overseer emeritus afterwards.

AWARDS AND HONORS

  • In addition to the Nobel Prize, Brattain received including multiple honorary degrees, membership to many scientific societies, the Stuart Ballantine Medal (1952), and the John Scott Medal (1955).
  • He is also a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, and the commission on semiconductors of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and of

PERSONAL LIFE

  • Brattain’s brother Robert, who also studied at Whitman College, became a physicist as well.
  • In 1935 he married chemist Keren Gilmore.
  • The couple had one son, William Gilmore Brattain.
  • Keren Gilmore Brattain died on April 10, 1957.
  • The following year, he married Emma Jane Kirsch Miller.
  • Brattain relocated to Seattle in the 1970s and lived there until his death on October 13, 1987.
  • He died from Alzheimer’s disease.

Walter Brattain Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Walter Brattain across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Walter Brattain worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Walter Brattain who was an American physicist at Bell Labs who invented the point-contact transistor together with scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley. For their invention, they received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Brattain focused on researching surface states for much of his life and career.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Walter Brattain Facts
  • Great Brattain
  • Make It Correct
  • Vocabulary Review
  • Correct Timeline
  • Parts Of A Transistor
  • According To Dr. Brattain
  • Brattain’s Colleagues
  • Hall Of Honor
  • My Physics Invention
  • Walter’s Wall

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