"AT&T might have demonstrated the point contact transistor first, but the technology we actually use is based on the thick film transistor Philips demonstrated a few weeks later and that was in widespread use whilst AT&T were still trying to get workable yields on the point contact design (let alone generally consistent devices)"
Anybody that works at the forefront of science and engineering knows that these thing emerge when it's their time to emerge. This often means that it can look like an invention or discovery was made in different places only separated by days. A good read that shows a bunch of example is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. The same concept is a key point in "Raising Steam" by Terry Pratchett and is also mentioned in "Outland" by Dennis E. Taylor. There are also many stories that stem from the race to discover all of the elements suggested by Mendeleev's Periodic Table.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
