You're all wrong!
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp
That machine is a display for submarines, not the home computer. I thought it was pretty believable, but the absence of a comma in the "However<,> ..." portion of the sniplet made me skeptical.
@ MyndFyre: Transistor... vacuum tubes don't work very well.
Hehehehe. I'm pretty sure I've seen this before too, and it was debunked then, but still -- this can't be far from what the 1950's neanderthals believed.
And you're right! That is a transistor!
It is perfectly understandable that they imagined computers to look like that. We are constantly doing what they said was impossible 20 years ago (my prof who did his Comp Sci degree 20 years ago especially believes that).
Also, it's an NPN transistor -- when making circuits, you have to be careful not to get it backwards, otherwise nothing will work. Trust me