Abstract
With no element has there ever been such a spectacular leap to fame as with germanium. Twenty-five years ago it was a rare and obscure element, attracting very little attention and with no obvious uses or future. Yet, in a few years it was being intensively studied by physicist, metallurgist, electronic engineer, and chemist. It was being widely sought for, it was being produced with a purity greater than that of any other element, and it had laid the foundation for a still expanding semiconductor industry. Its congener, silicon, although one of the commonest of elements had, in its elemental form, attracted little attention, yet now it also is being closely studied and is being prepared with a purity comparable to that of germanium. Before 1948 the production of germanium was negligibly small but it now exceeds a quarter of a million pounds per annum. The production of silicon for semiconductor devices has reached similar heights.
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