Walter Brattain and John Bardeen demonstrated amplification with a point-contact transistor. Closely spaced contacts on a semiconductor allowed a small controlling signal to alter the current in another circuit. Injection and transport of carriers near the surface made the solid an active amplifier, rather than only a passive resistor. Their report connects semiconductor surface physics with a practical three-terminal electrical device.[ref]
The Transistor, A Semi-Conductor Triode by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain. Physical Review 74, 230 (1948), point-contact amplification
Portrait of Walter Brattain
. Nobel foundation; 1956. Public domain in Sweden (PD-Sweden photograph). Source usage terms, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
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