How the First Transistor Worked

With compare to common wisdom (which was widespread due to Shockley's interpretation of affairs) the first bipolar transistor was constructed rather accidentally during search for explanation of another effect. Even its inventors didn’t fully understand the point-contact transistor and textbooks and popular accounts alike tend to ignore the mechanism of the point-contact transistor in favor of explaining how its more recent descendants operate. See also:

• John Bardeen: Semiconductor Research Leading to the Point Contact Transistor (PDF)
• How Europe missed the transistor: The most important invention of the 20th century was conceived not just once, but twice
• The Truth Behind Transistor Invention
• History of the transistor

The exclamation that heralds greatest scientific discoveries isn't really “Eureka!” but merely like “That's funny.”

-- Issac Asimov