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History of the LED — the Movie

Posted by timothy on from the some-dude's-bright-idea dept.

ptorrone writes "MAKE Magazine has a fantastic 'Connections'-style video called THE LED — The short documentary has the history of the LED to modern day applications. Starting with the work of Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev, which was largely ignored in the 1920s, to making your own 'Cat's Whisker' — a primitive LED made from a metal-semiconductor point-contact junction forming a Schottky barrier diode. The first practical visible-spectrum LED was developed in 1962 by Nick Holonyak Jr., while working at General Electric Company."

11 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. LED: The Movie by illumastorm · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was such an enlightening experience.

  2. Illuminating film by lessthanpi · · Score: 3, Funny

    This movie is to diode for

    --
    One man with a gun can control 100 without one
    1. Re:Illuminating film by MarkRose · · Score: 4, Funny

      Like, you can only resist the current of electronics jokes until the intensity of desire becomes too much and you breakdown, right?

      --
      Be relentless!
    2. Re:Illuminating film by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nonsense! Two atoms walk into a bar. The first says "I think I've lost an electron", and the second replies "Are you sure?", and the first one says "I'm positive"

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    3. Re:Illuminating film by syousef · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nonsense! Two atoms walk into a bar. The first says "I think I've lost an electron", and the second replies "Are you sure?", and the first one says "I'm positive"

      The other took a closer look, but the wave function collapsed and the electron reappeared.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    4. Re:Illuminating film by mudshark · · Score: 2, Funny

      You call that funny? It's just ionic.

      Thanks! I'll be here all week. Tip your servers and avoid the crab louie like the plague!

      --
      In other news, astrophysicists have announced that they now know what all that dark matter is: it's stupidity.
  3. Re:Best not to overdrive them though by MarkRose · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think someone swindled you. They obviously sold you SEDs: Smoke Emitting Diodes. I got taken several times myself as a kid. It took me a while before I figured out how to spot proper components that kept the magic smoke inside.

    --
    Be relentless!
  4. Re:Baby Blues. by MarkRose · · Score: 3, Funny

    So in other words, you're saying... they came out of the blue?

    --
    Be relentless!
  5. Re:Best not to overdrive them though by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Funny

    It took me a while before I figured out how to spot proper components that kept the magic smoke inside.

    Yeah I tried resistors for that but they often became Smoke Emitting Resistors too.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  6. Re:Baby Blues. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I might try this sometime. Should I apply the soldering iron to the LED or the product designer?

  7. Re:warning don't try at home! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Cool, Richard Dean Anderson is posting to slashdot!