Books you have read about electronics history and its legendary individuals

[schmitt trigger]

Being Electronic professionals or enthusiasts here, I assume that you may have your favorite electronics history books.

What do I mean by that?

A book which covers a historical period where a major electronics innovation occurred.

In my opinion, a good book on the subject should have sufficient technical detail about the innovation, embroidered with the right amount of personal and organizational background, all mixed with good, old fashioned story telling.

That is a tall order, and I've read many such books, but it is difficult to strike a balance. For instance, some books have great storytelling, but are riddled with technical inaccuracies.

Thus for me, two books are my favorites in this respect:

1- Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age (Sloan Technology Series) This focuses mainly on the invention of the transistor, and the three geniuses behind it. It also touches further semiconductor advances. Not a perfect book, but definitively whets your appetite to continue reading other books like "The Chip".

2- Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio. This is a superb book, discussing the tremendous strides in wireless communications, during the first three decades of the XX Century. It clearly meshes the lives of three radically different men: Edwin Armstrong, engineering genius. Lee DeForest, innovative tinkerer and tireless self-promoter. And David Sarnoff, ruthless entrepreneur and visionary businessman.

So this are my favorites....which ones are yours?

[TerraHertz]

Funny you should mention Sarnoff. Since the first book that came to my mind is:
  The Last Lone Inventor  (Philo T Farnsworth vs. David Sarnoff in...)
  A tale of genius, deceit & the birth of television
  By: Evan I Schwartz

It's a great read. However also something of a whitewash of the extremely underhanded tactics of Farnsworth's opponents: RCA's Zworykin and Sarnoff. Hmm, a book written by a tribalist, casting cheating, thieving, lying tribalists in a positive light, what a surprise. There's also incredibly minimal mention of Farnsworth's greatest achievement, the working nuclear Fusor device. Almost as if the book was a kind of limited hangout effort designed to belittle Farnsworth and his second invention. But I still recommend it.

Another good read:
 Uncle Tungsten, by Oliver Sacks.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Well, this is part of a book.

www-smirc.stanford.edu/papers/chapter1.pdf

It's great to read.

[rdl]

I didn't realize Empire of the Air was originally a book, I only knew of the Ken Burns documentary.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Sarnoff!

[Cubdriver]

Here are a few:

Tube: The Invention of Television (Fisher)

The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technical Revolution (Robert Buderi)

The Chip : How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution (T. R. Reid)

Broken Genius : The Rise And Fall of William Shockley (Joel N. Shurkin)

History of Semiconductor Engineering (Bo Lojek)

-Pat

[bd139]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0750696400

[rsjsouza]

Not necessarily describing a breakthrough but all related to the history of electronics/computing and quite interesting to read:
- Siliconnections: coming to age in the silicon era (Forrest M. Mims, III)
- On the edge: the spectacular rise and fall of Commodore (Brian Bagnall)
- The soul of a new machine (Trace Kidder)

The Chip : How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution (T. R. Reid)

I liked this one very much.

[Assafl]

Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age 
by Paul Nahin

Edit: Hint - Obviously this book is only for AC buffs. If you like your signals slow (very slow!) and steady (very steady!) then Oliver Heaviside would be your bane....

[Alex Eisenhut]

https://www.amazon.ca/Charged-Bodies-People-Paradox-Silicon/dp/0453004873/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503837656&sr=1-2&keywords=charged+bodies

[schmitt trigger]

the extremely underhanded tactics of Farnsworth's opponents: RCA's Zworykin and Sarnoff.

As others have already mentioned, Sarnoff was a visionary businessman, that was also the devil incarnate when it came to crush his competitors.

What he did to Armstrong, which eventually led Armstrong to commit suicide, is a prime example of ruthless scheming.

With respect to Zworkin, I read somewhere that he disguised himself as an apprentice, and went to seek work at Farnsworth's lab. After stealing all the secrets, he just quit, only to re-appear at RCA labs.

[tggzzz]

"Most Secret War" (a.k.a. The Wizard War) by RV Jones.

It is about British scientific intelligence in WW2, so mentions many many topics.

[joeqsmith]

Many years ago a friend of mine loaned me Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy.   It's basically about the history of the early pioneers with many great stories about the people and cultures of the time.   I wrote Richard Stallman after reading the book.   

I have some old books on electricity and electrical devices but nothing really for electronics and nothing that is really a historical reference book.  I have some old ARRL books and trade magazines from the 60s and earlier.  Also have some old Bell Systems Technical manuals.  These are pretty good.   

[chris_leyson]

"The Deadly Fuze" by Ralph B. Baldwin.
About the development of the proximity fuze during WWII by the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University.