Ge Transistor Leads

[Phend]

Question:
Why are the leads on Ge transistors so long ?

[tonyharker]

To dissipate the heat of soldering, also to allow you to put a temporary heatsink on while soldering.

[garcho]

There also weren't standardized 2.54 pcbs when those packages were designed. The leads might be used as the actual hookup wire like point to point. And redesigning something later in THT means @#$&ing with the manufacturing equipment which makes the bean counters angry.

[mozz]

It's just the way they were made back then. Often point to point on tag strips was used. Nowadays, resistor leads are so thin, i guess chinese made to be cheap and save as much money as possible. As to heat sinking, i have never used a heatsink while soldering transistors and i've been soldering since the early 70's. Have your soldering iron set at the correct temperature and use the correct solder, get in get out. You would really have to hold the iron on for a while to do any damage, there used to be a spec on the datasheets for transistors and diodes telling you the max temp/seconds.