Re:modern electronics? (Score 1)

I have believed that the vacuum tube delayed the advent of solid state electronics.
The crystal detector was in use before the vacuum tube was invented, http//www.solarbotics.net/bftgu/starting_elect_sem ic.html, if that avenue had been persued before the tube came of age maybe I wouldn't have spent a large part of my time in the Navy (1957-60) lugging a tube caddy around the ship.