Iotatron? Sounds like something from a cheesy Sci-Fi flick.
Iotatron definitely sounds way cooler than transistors.
Transistor sounds pretty cool, but I do like iotatron; I do fail to see where the name came from, though. If the transistor was invented today, I wonder what it would be called. More so, what would life be like without it? Would we have found some other way to make computers and AVRs and, well, transistors, or would we still be using mechanical computers? I wonder...
Onions.
For a time in the 60s and 70s the word 'transistor' was synonymous with the phrase "portable radio" .
In those days I could buy a transistor (component) for seven shillings and a transistor radio for about twenty pounds. Just to give you some idea in 1967 I got paid about six pounds a week. Or about 18 transistors a week.
Grumpy_Mike:
For a time in the 60s and 70s the word 'transistor' was synonymous with the phrase "portable radio" .In those days I could buy a transistor (component) for seven shillings and a transistor radio for about twenty pounds. Just to give you some idea in 1967 I got paid about six pounds a week. Or about 18 transistors a week.
I remember those days. Not that I was buying components -- was a bit young for that. I got a "transistor" radio, maybe for my birthday, in '68 or '69. Our TV had tubes in it, and some grocery stores still had tube testers in them. And 'solid state' was the big advertising slogan.
Onions:
Transistor sounds pretty cool, but I do like iotatron; I do fail to see where the name came from, though. If the transistor was invented today, I wonder what it would be called. More so, what would life be like without it? Would we have found some other way to make computers and AVRs and, well, transistors, or would we still be using mechanical computers? I wonder...
The Adafruit blog post linked to a scan of the whole memo.
Iotatron. This term satisfactorily conveys the sense of a minute element, as contrasted to the previous name. However, in view of the many vacuum or gas filled devices such as thyratrons, dynatrons, transitrons, etc., it lacks the distinguishing property which would differentiate it from such devices.
I remember buying my first transistor around 1958 or so from Allied Electronics. I think it cost about $4 or $5 at the time which was a fortune for me at age 11-12 years old. It was a Raytheon CK-722, kind of famous in it's day. I bet it would sell for more today as a collectors item if I had held on to it. 
EDIT: Yep, should have kept it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-NOS-Raytheon-CK722-1956-Germanium-Transistor-MINT-644-/390210068976?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ada5521f0
I remember "semiconductor" was the official name of semiconductor transistor radio at my corner of the world when I grew up.
I should check the stock room of my department. Lots of things were left untouched for decades, including some tubes from after WWII so ther might be old transistors too. There used to be many professors in the physics department each teaching electronics during the haydays of the department. Now I am the only one teaching it, every other year.