All the early experiments with semiconductor devices have been plagued by irreproducibility, because it was not understood how much even minute amounts of impurities or crystal defects can affect the results.
The reason why the transistor and the other semiconductor devices have been discovered quickly after WW2 was that during the war there has been a huge effort to improve the purification and the growing of semiconductor crystals like germanium and silicon, with the purpose of making large quantities of detection diodes for radars.
At the high frequencies used by radars, the devices used in low frequency radio receivers, e.g. vacuum diodes or improvised point-contact diodes, such as those made on galena, were ineffective.
After the war, the research on semiconductor devices could use the newly available high-quality crystals, on which reproducible devices could be made, so the invention of the transistor became an unavoidable consequence.
Like the nuclear industry, the semiconductor industry is also a result of the large amount of money spent in USA during WW2 for improving manufacturing techniques.
With normal corporate spending that is limited by short-term profits, becoming able to make reproducible transistors might have needed many decades, if ever happening. Making pure semiconductor crystals is not something for which a lone inventor could afford to build equipment.
The reason why the transistor and the other semiconductor devices have been discovered quickly after WW2 was that during the war there has been a huge effort to improve the purification and the growing of semiconductor crystals like germanium and silicon, with the purpose of making large quantities of detection diodes for radars.
At the high frequencies used by radars, the devices used in low frequency radio receivers, e.g. vacuum diodes or improvised point-contact diodes, such as those made on galena, were ineffective.
After the war, the research on semiconductor devices could use the newly available high-quality crystals, on which reproducible devices could be made, so the invention of the transistor became an unavoidable consequence.
Like the nuclear industry, the semiconductor industry is also a result of the large amount of money spent in USA during WW2 for improving manufacturing techniques.
With normal corporate spending that is limited by short-term profits, becoming able to make reproducible transistors might have needed many decades, if ever happening. Making pure semiconductor crystals is not something for which a lone inventor could afford to build equipment.