Boarx diodes are pretty easy to make, aluminum, lead, and a saturated solution of sodium tetroborate will do that. Boron is a known semiconductor and it's been looked at a lot lately and offers some promising ideas, but I don't remember hearing about borax bring used as a transistor back in the early days. It probably was, however, everyone and their brother invented some sort of semiconducting trans-resistance device but they weren't ever efficient enough to be worthwhile. Bell Labs didn't invent the transistor, it was just the right time for that kind of device and theirs worked well enough to be that device.