The First LED

Back in 1907 a man named Henry Round was trying out different materials to make a point contact diode. he noticed that one material, Silicon Carbide, had areas that put out dim yellow or green light.

 

It was mostly forgotten.

 

The LED was re-discovered in Russia in 1927.

 

The IR LED was re-re-discovered at RCA in 1955.

 

The first visible (red) LED was made in 1962.

 

I owe a lot to LEDs as I have had great fun working with them on projects both practical and fun. I still have a few thousand from my Burning Man days.

 

It was amazing to me that Rounds original 1907 discovery was so ignored. He was the personal assistant to Marconi, so the talent was there.

 

Maybe Marconi was too wrapped up in radio advances to pay attention.

 

But still, at the time, there were four ways of making light, hot materials (incandescence and arc), flames, sparks and glow discharge.

 

This was radically different, cold light from a piece of mineral. It just seems like it should have gotten more attention.

 

Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

 

Cheers.

Done