The first transistor was made using germanium rather than silicon.
Notes on verification
Well-documented historical fact corroborated by Nobel Prize archives, Computer History Museum, and standard semiconductor history references. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.77 clusters=2 claim_tier=everyday | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- Silicon is still King and it is proving difficult to topple it - IEEE Future Directions (seed:technology_and_ai)
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1956/summary/ (corroboration)
- https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/digital-logic/12/273 (corroboration)