On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:53:22 +0100, Eeyore
m wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
On Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:56:51 +0100, Eeyore
m wrote:

John Fields wrote: ANSI reference designators.pdf

Only for antiquated Americans of course.

Do please especially explain the relevance of the letter Q to indicate a
transistor or U for an IC.

We invented them, we named them. You can have credit for "V".

Actually the first transistor ( a FET ) was theorised by a German in the
30s IIRC. I believe he even tried to make one but materials weren't pure
enough back then.

Nope. 1920s by Japanese. I went looking for references but many
search engines don't have anything over 50 years old.

Similarly a Briton forsaw ICs in the 50s calling them 'solid circuits'
at the time.

Graham