Conquering the Electron - by Derek Cheung & Eric Brach (Paperback)

About the Book

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of friction and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smart phone and the iPad.

Book Synopsis

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad. This book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next on the long journey to our modern-day technologies. Exploring the combination of genius, infighting, and luck that powered the creation of today's electronic age, Conquering the Electron debunks the hero worship so often plaguing the stories of great advances.

Want to know how AT&T's Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology--and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work--and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place.

Review Quotes

Conquering the Electron contains an amazing number of little-known facts about the giants who shaped technology and still have an impact today. This book is an interesting read and an inspiration to engineers, entrepreneurs, and young people who aspire to make a difference. It will also provide ample conversation material for any social encounter.

Conquering the Electron is a unique collection of insights into the "visionaries, egomaniacs, and scoundrels," as well as their related electronic technologies that changed the world in the past two centuries. This is a must-read for technologists, entrepreneurs, tech investors, and business strategists!

This is not an ordinary history book. Conquering the Electron brings deeper insight to the lives and work of those giants who made quantum progress in escalating humans' understanding and use of electricity. It also reveals the critical meaning of some of the most important (but frequently forgotten or ignored) discoveries and inventions. I firmly believe that my peers and students would benefit equally from reading this well-investigated and composed book in pursuit of their own careers to further advance state-of-the-art electronics.

While I was aware of bits and pieces of the history of the electron, I have never before seen them connected in such a clear and comprehensive manner as in this book. Whether you are just starting to learn about the electron or are a veteran of the electronics industry, you will be enlightened by Conquering the Electron.

Best history of electronics ever. Derek Cheung is an outstanding technologist and businessperson, and he gets the technical and business details right. This is a great story of a mighty industry.

About the Author

Dr. Derek Cheung is a scientist turned businessman with a lifetime of experience in the fields of science and technology. He received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in the same field from Stanford. Derek spent four years working as a research engineer at Fairchild Semiconductor, the company that gave birth to Silicon Valley, before making a career as president and CEO of Rockwell Scientific, a successful high-tech company transformed from a major corporate R&D lab. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California.

Eric Brach is a lecturer in English at West Los Angeles College in Culver City, California. He is the author of Billy "the Hill" and the Jump Hook and has been a contributor to national magazines, newspapers, and academic journals, including Bleacher Report, Box Office, and The Onion. He lives in Culver City, California.