LETTER

In his article "Japanese Businessmen: The Yen Is Mightier Than the Sword," James Sterba credits the Sony Corporation with leading the way in commercial exploitation of the transistor while the inventor, Bell Telephone Laboratories, "didn't know what to do with it except sell it to the Pentagon."

The statement is neither descriptive truth nor objective metaphor. Bell Laboratories knew what to do with the transistor before the device was invented.