John Northrup Shive (February 22, 1913 – June 1, 1984) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. He made notable contributions in

electronic engineering Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

and

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...

during the early days of transistor development at

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

. In particular, he produced experimental evidence that

holes A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

could diffuse through bulk

germanium Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors s ...

, and not just along the surface as previously thought. This paved the way from

Bardeen Bardeen may refer to: *Charles Russell Bardeen (1871–1935), American anatomist, first dean of the medical school of the University of Wisconsin-Madison *Charles V. Bardeen (1850–1903), American jurist *Charles William Bardeen (1847–1924), Ame ...

and Brattain's

point-contact transistor The point-contact transistor was the first type of transistor to be successfully demonstrated. It was developed by research scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Laboratories in December 1947. They worked in a group led by physicis ...

to Shockley's more-robust

junction transistor A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor, uses only one kind of charge carrier. A bipolar t ...

. Shive is best known for inventing the

phototransistor A photodiode is a light-sensitive semiconductor diode. It produces current when it absorbs photons. The package of a photodiode allows light (or infrared or ultraviolet radiation, or X-rays) to reach the sensitive part of the device. The packa ...

in 1948 (a device that combines the sensitivity to light of a photodiode and the current gain of a transistor), and for the Shive wave machine in 1959 (an educational apparatus used to illustrate wave motion).

Early life and education

John N. Shive was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, on February 22, 1913, and grew up in New Jersey. Shive graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

with a BS in physics and chemistry in 1934. He also earned a PhD from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, submitting a dissertation ''Practice and theory of the modulation of Geiger counters'' in 1939. Shive became a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, a member of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, and was a member of the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

fraternities.Contributors to Proceedings of the I.R.E.
1952.

Scientific career

John N. Shive joined

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mul ...

in 1939. Shive worked initially on physical research and device development, and later on education and training. After retirement from industry, he worked as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

of physics at

Georgian Court University Georgian Court University (GCU or Georgian Court) is a private Roman Catholic university in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. Founded in 1908 by the Sisters of Mercy, the university has more than 1,600 undergraduates and nearly 600 graduate students ...

. The spherical sundial on campus, in front of the bookstore and next to the library, is dedicated to his memory.

Transistor development

On January 30, 1948 Shive discovered that gold-plated tungsten point contacts on a p-type layer of germanium grown on an n-type substrate gave "a terrific triode effect". On February 13, he also discovered that a transistor consisting of bronze contacts on the surface of an n-type substrate without a p-layer gave "gains up to 40× in power!" He leveraged this discovery to build a point contact transistor with bronze contacts on the front and back of thin wedge of germanium, proving that

could diffuse through bulk germanium and not just along the surface as previously thought. This confirmed

William Shockley William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly ...

's idea that it should be possible to build a junction transistor, an idea that hitherto he had kept secret from the rest of the team. Shockley later admitted that the workings of the team were "mixture of cooperation and competition". He also admitted that he kept some of own work secret until his "hand was forced" by Shive's 1948 advance.

Phototransistor

In 1948 Shive invented the

that used a beam of light, instead of a wire, as the emitter of a point contact transistor, generating holes that flow to the collector. Bell Labs announced the invention in 1950. The phototransistor was eventually used in the nationwide

direct distance dialing Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunication service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra d ...

system.

Shive wave machine

Shive was a gifted lecturer, and became Director of Education and Training at Bell Telephone Laboratories. He was responsible for curriculum and administration of educational programs provided to employees of Bell Laboratories. In this new role, he invented the Shive wave machine (also known as the Shive wave generator). The wave generator illustrates wave motion using a series of steel rods joined by a thin torsion wire which transmits energy from one rod to the next. The high

moment of inertia The moment of inertia, otherwise known as the mass moment of inertia, angular mass, second moment of mass, or most accurately, rotational inertia, of a rigid body is a quantity that determines the torque needed for a desired angular acceler ...

of each rod ensures the wave takes several seconds to traverse the entire series of rods, making the dynamics easily visible. The motion is analogous to high-frequency waves that are invisible to the human eye, such as electromagnetic waves on a transmission line. The wave generator could illustrate wave reflection,

standing wave In physics, a standing wave, also known as a stationary wave, is a wave that oscillates in time but whose peak amplitude profile does not move in space. The peak amplitude of the wave oscillations at any point in space is constant with respect ...

resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...

partial reflection In physics and electrical engineering the reflection coefficient is a parameter that describes how much of a wave is reflected by an impedance discontinuity in the transmission medium. It is equal to the ratio of the amplitude of the reflected wa ...

, and

impedance matching In electronics, impedance matching is the practice of designing or adjusting the input impedance or output impedance of an electrical device for a desired value. Often, the desired value is selected to maximize power transfer or minimize signal ...

. Shive made two educational films in which he demonstrated the machine, ''Simple Waves'' and ''Similarities in Wave Behavior'', and wrote a book with the same name as the latter. Today, the

Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, California. Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory natur ...

Exhibit Services manufactures a large-scale version of the machine for use in science museums and schools.

Patents

Shive held several patents including ''Selenium rectifier and method of making it'', ''Directly heated thermocouple'', ''Photoresistive translating device'', ''Selenium rectifier including tellurium and method of making it'', ''Apparatus for and method of treating selenium rectifiers'', ''Semiconductor photoelectric device'', ''Conditioning of semiconductor translators'', ''Semiconductor amplifier'', and ''Alternating gate current''.

Books

Shive authored three books during his career, beginning with ''The Properties, Physics, and Design of Semiconductor Devices'' (1959), a book about semiconductor devices. This was followed by ''Similarities of Wave Behavior'' (1961), a book designed to help college professors teach students about waves using the machine he invented. His last book, ''Similarities in Physics'' (1982), was coauthored with Robert L. Weber. He was also one of the editors of ''Transistor Technology, Volume 1.''

Honors

John N. Shive was a fellow of the

and a Senior Member of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

. He was also a chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Pre-College Physics Project of the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

Personal life

Shive was married to Helen Conner, and the two were the parents of Peter, Jonathan, and Elaine. From 1974 to 1984 Shive was faculty lecturer in Physics at Georgian Court College of Lakewood, New Jersey. He died on 3 June 1984 at the Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, New Jersey.

Selected works

* J. N. Shive, ''Physical Review'', vol. 75, p. 318, 1949. * J. N. Shive, ''Physical Review'', vol. 75, p. 689, 1949. * J. A. Becker and J. N. Shive, "The Transistor – A New Semiconductor Amplifier," ''The Electrical Engineer''., vol 68, no. 3, pp. 215–221, Mar. 1949. *J. N. Shive, "The Properties of Germanium Phototransistors", JOSA, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 239–243, 1953. *John N. Shive and Robert L. Weber, ''Similarities in Physics''. New York, NY: Wiley, 1982. .

References

External links

Diagram of a Shive wave machine
* ttp://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/htmltag.php?code=users.sgeducation.lookang.WaveMachinewee_pkg.WaveMachineweeApplet.class&name=WaveMachinewee&muid=14019 Open Source Physics Shive Wave Machine Model {{DEFAULTSORT:Shive, John N. 1913 births 1984 deaths People from New Jersey Johns Hopkins University alumni Rutgers University alumni 20th-century American physicists Experimental physicists Scientists at Bell Labs Scientists from Baltimore 20th-century American inventors Fellows of the American Physical Society