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In a brief departure from dustygizmos’ usual format we’re looking
at a single innovative and crucially important electronic component, used in
the vast majority of British and European made radios, amplifiers, tape
recorders and so on, from the mid to late nineteen fifties until the early
seventies. It’s the transistor, specifically the legendary ‘OC’ series of
Germanium junction transistors, the vast majority of them manufactured by
Mullard, a UK subsidiary of the Dutch electronics giant Philips. 
Mullard produced its first prototypes in 1952, barely four years
after Bell Laboratories in the US invented the transistor. They were the OC50
and 51, which used the same ‘point contact’ construction as the original Bell
transistors. However, they proved to be difficult and expensive, not to mention
very fragile, so they never went into large scale production, A year later
Mullard introduced the OC10, 11 and 12 which used artificially grown Germanium
crystals, doped with various chemicals. These altered the crystals electrical
conductivity to produce layers with differing characteristics. The crystals
with ‘semiconducting ‘ properties were sliced into tiny slabs and connected to
fine wires. The meeting points between the layers are known as ‘junctions’, led
to the name ‘junction transistor’. 
Skip this bit if you’re not a fan how-it-works stuff.
And we’re back, to the life and times of the OC series
transistors. It only took a couple of years for Mullard (and other transistor
manufacturers around the world) to iron out the kinks and wrinkles and figure
out how to mass-produce these devices. They had become a commercial product and
the fun could begin. Mullard got off to a flying start in 1954 by working out
how to encapsulate their transistors in tiny round ended glass tubes. This
eliminated at a stroke problems other makers were experiencing with other types
of housing, which over time allowed air and moisture to get in. This could
rapidly damage sensitive Germanium crystals and cause thermal instability. 
Mullard's first commercial venture became one of the most popular,
versatile and long-lived ranges of audio frequency transistors. They were the
OC70, OC71 and OC72, easy to spot in their black painted glass housings and
metal casings The three transistors were generally manufactured from single
crystals then tested and selected for their specific properties. Transistors
with low noise characteristics became OC70s, the OC71 was a standard
all-purpose type and the OC72 could handle more power and fitted inside an aluminium
cover to further improved heat dissipation. 
Here’s a nerdy tidbit. Germanium crystals are light sensitive,
hence the black paint on the glass encapsulation. Mullard exploited this effect
by introducing a variant called the OCP71, also known as a Phototransistor.
They were extensively used as light sensors and the electronic enthusiast
magazines of the day were full of circuits and plans for light activated
burglar alarms, electronic door openers, even light-based ‘walkie-talkies.
Unfortunately OCP71s were horribly expensive, compared with standard OC71s, but
it was discovered that you could scrape off the black paint on a bog standard
OC71 to make a cheap OCP71. Both types were filled with a clear silicon gel.
The story goes that Mullard got wise to the practice and changed the filling of
OC71s to a lightproof paste. It turns out this was something of an urban myth.
Allegedly the switch to an opaque paste was to improve heat dissipation and
OC71s with the clear gel were actually rejected OCP71s so they either didn’t
work as phototransistors, or the light-sensing performance was poor. For the
record I recall using this trick to make a rudimentary light activated switch,
and it worked very well indeed.
Throughout the 1950s Mullard continued to develop more advanced
versions of the OC series transistor. The OC44 and OC45, which appeared in
1956, were designed to handle higher frequencies, which led to them becoming a
familiar sight in early British made transistor radios. However, the original
manufacturing process imposed limits on the frequencies junction transistors
could handle. It wasn’t until 1958, when Mullard introduced the OC169 and OC171
– using a refined manufacturing technique -- that transistors finally found
their way into high quality, British made radio receivers. At around this time
Mullard were also making low noise transistors that could handle significantly
higher currents. They were meant to be used in multiple stages, the smaller
ones, known as ‘drivers’ controlling larger ones, housed inside ‘diamond’
shaped metal cases. These led to the first all-transistor ‘power amplifiers’
resulting in a new generation of high-quality audio components and ultimately
the birth of the world-renowned British Hi-Fi industry