"josephkk" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:30:22 +0100, N_Cook wrote:

On 15/10/2014 04:27, micky wrote:
I think 3 people won the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the blue
LED.

Did the inventor of the first (red) LED get a Nobel prize. It seems a
lot harder to invent the first one than the third or fourth.

The red guy perhaps was the first to think of the idea, but even if not,
he had to think it could be done and then go do it.

The blue guy just has to try many many combinations unitil he finds one
that is blue. Just because it's the last piece in the puzzle, I don't
think it's Nobel-worthy.


Fair point, certainly wrt yellow or green or orange but blue was the
key to getting to white LED-light, a quantum leap ;-)

No, not a quantum leap. Certainly not compared to the initial LED.

?-)



I rather think it was actually. The principle of the LED had been known for
a long time, and producing the first commercially successful ones was more a
case of tweaking and refining than 'real' innovation. Producing the other
long and medium wavelength colours such as yellow and green was a variation
on a theme. Producing a successful blue LED with a useable level of output
was rather more difficult and defeated those who were trying for many years.
I can remember the first LEDs appearing, and yes, for sure, they were an
interesting component that made it possible to produce low voltage numeric
displays and panel indicators, and the other colours that followed improved
the versatility in that respect, but the real 'holy grail' was the blue one
which, as Mr Cook suggests, was the final puzzle piece to open up the way
for full colour video display panels, and white light for space lighting ...

Arfa