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Article: Solar Cell Created 50 Years Ago Is 'Unsung Hero'.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- April 29, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Martha McKay, The Record, Hackensack, N.J. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 29--Fifty years ago this week, scientists at Bell Labs unveiled a small device built with a jeweler's precision that turned the sun's energy into electricity.
They called it a "solar battery."
The company assembled on the front lawn of Bell Labs' Murray Hill headquarters to announce creation of the world's first commercially viable solar cell.
"An amazingly simple-looking apparatus made of strips of silicon showed how the sun's rays could be used to power ... a transistor radio transmitter carrying both speech and music," the company wrote in a ...