This goliath had approximately 18,000 watts worth of tubes to "propell" it and required 160 KW of electricity to overall power it. It was the predecessor of future computers and pretty much did number-crunching at then-incredible speeds! Subsequent models obviously were more compact and smaller. Thanks to Western Electric and the Bell Laboratory research, the transistor was invented in 1948. It won the Nobel Peace Prize and worldwide acclaim, furthering the trend toward miniaturization of future vital electronic components and products. Photo courtesy LG net.