iPhones and other technology relied on today can be traced to the development of the transistor – the forerunner of semiconductors – which the Lehigh Valley was the first to mass produce for the world starting in 1951.

If you’ve wondered what that technology and its production looked like, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. recently unearthed a video made at the time to promote that technological innovation.

The black-and-white video, “The Transistor,” was produced by Western Electric, a division of Bell Labs, in 1953.

A shortened version of the 10-minute video was shown at LVEDC’s Fall Signature Event, “Lehigh Valley’s Technology Sector: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” that was sponsored by Intel® on Nov. 8 at Lehigh University’s Iacocca Hall.

The event celebrated the storied past and bright future of the Lehigh Valley’s technology industry, with a panel of tech industry leaders from Intel®, Broadcom, iDEAL Semiconductor and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The transistor video was edited for LVEDC by ASR Media in Bethlehem.

“These tiny transistors are destined to play a big part in our electronic age,” says the video, which includes footage of transistors being packaged by workers at Western Electric in Allentown. “They will make possible smaller, more compact electronic devices that will need less maintenance and have a longer life.”

The video, which is now in the public domain because of its age, predicts future technology that could be developed using transistors, including an early version of a smartwatch described at the time as a “Dick Tracy radio.”

You can watch the video here.

Other videos from LVEDC, including highlights of the 2023 Annual Meeting headlined by Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the 2023 Internship Summit, are available on LVEDC’s YouTube channel, here.