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Abstract
Most studies mark the start of silicon electronics in Silicon Valley with William Shockley and Arnold Beckman’s creation of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. This study details how the automation movement of the 1950s shaped the careers of both Shockley and Beckman, and formed an indispensible context for their creation of Shockley Semiconductor. Shockley was engaged in automation from the early 1950s, promoting his vision of an ‘automatic trainable robot’ to revolutionize manufacturing. Beckman was deeply involved in automation in the mid-1950s, orienting his company to key technologies for the ‘automatic factory:’ instrumentation and computers. Beckman and Shockley’s entrepreneurial involvements with electronics and automation led them to create Shockley Semiconductor to pursue silicon transistors in 1955.
Notes
1. Beckman, Oral history. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to: Ann Johnson and W. Patrick McCray for giving me valuable feedback on an early draft of this piece; to Martin Collins for his enthusiasm and very helpful criticisms in the development of the paper; to the thoughtful reviewers; to Gerald Gallwas for getting me access to the Beckman records; and, deeply, to the Center for Contemporary History and Policy of the Chemical Heritage Foundation and to the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for their support of this work.
2. Within the historical literature, there are at least three strands in the treatment Silicon Valley’s early history. These strands respectively center on Stanford University (and its entrepreneurial leader Frederick Terman), the electronics industry, and California’s role as a critical supplier of technoscientific expertise, goods, and services for the national security state. Stephen Adams provides a helpful survey of the literature in his Adams, ‘Stanford and Silicon Valley.’ Christophe Lécuyer’s masterful Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley is the best treatment centered on the electronics industry, as well as the best overall treatment of Silicon Valley’s early history. Stuart Leslie’s work combines the emphases on Stanford and the military, including his Leslie, The Cold War.
3. On the development of Silicon Valley from its earliest days, Lécuyer’s Making Silicon Valley is an excellent guide through to the 1970s. Also see Kenney, Understanding Silicon Valley, Lee et al., The Silicon Valley Edge, and Saxenian’s essential Regional Advantage. The breezy Cringley, Accidental Empires does provide a useful and entertaining overview. Saxenian, New Argonauts gets at important dynamics in the region’s most recent history.
4. Brown and Wiener, ‘Automation, 1955;’ Diebold, Automation.
5. William Shockley to May Shockley, January 25. 1955, Series IV, Box 7, Folder 3, Shockley Papers. William Shockley to Arnold Beckman, January 23, 1955, Series IV, Box 7, Folder 3, Shockley Papers. On Beckman (and the Beckman–De Forest collaboration), see Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman. On De Forest, see Hijiya, Lee de Forest. On Shockley, see Shurkin, Broken Genius.
6. On Arnold Beckman’s development of Beckman Instruments around the automation vision, see in particular Beckman Instruments, Inc., 1954 Annual Report, Beckman Files. Shockley’s activities in automation are revealed in a series of documents in the Shockley Papers, Box 6, Folder 8, ‘ATR Project 1952–3.’ The Beckman–Shockley interchange about automation and Shockley’s electro-optical ‘eye’ is drawn from a correspondence in a collection of Arnold Beckman’s Beckman Instruments files related to William Shockley. These files (Hereafter Beckman Files) are part of a broad Beckman-related archival collection at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and are currently unprocessed. As such, box numbers for these materials are unavailable. In particular, see: William Shockley to Arnold Beckman, February 8, 1955; Arnold Beckman to William Shockley, May 12, 1955, Beckman Files.
7. Noble, Forces of Production focuses on numerically controlled machine tools, but does comment on the broader automation movement of the 1950s.
8. Ante, Creative Capital; Diebold, Automation.
9. On scientific and technological movements, see Mody and Lynch, ‘Test objects;’ Diebold, Automation, 1–2.
10. Noble, Forces of Production; Diebold, Automation; Small, ‘General-Purpose Electronic;’ Mindell, ‘Automation’s Finest Hour;’ Higgins et al., ‘Electrical Computers;’ Wadel and Wortham, ‘Survey of Electronic.’
11. Diebold, Automation.
12. Noble, Forces of Production; Diebold, Automation.
13. Shurkin, Broken Genius; Pierce, ‘Mervin Joe Kelly;’ Hoddeson, ‘Roots of Solid State Research.’
14. Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire; Ross, Interview; Goldey, Oral history.
15. Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire; Shurkin, Broken Genius; Brock, ‘Useless No More.’
16. Ante, Creative Capital.
17. The Shockley–Doriot correspondence is in the Shockley Papers, SC222 95-123, Box B-6.
18. Shockley, ‘Radiant Energy Control System.’ A copy of the patent application market ‘SECRET’ is in the Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6. On the timing of the meeting between Shockley and Doriot in 1950, see William Shockley to M.R. McKenney, February 15, 1952, Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
19. See Shockley’s correspondence with Doriot and ARD’s patent lawyers from 1951 and 1952 in the Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
20. Shurkin, Broken Genius; Pierce, ‘Mervin Joe Kelly;’ Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire; Kessler, ‘Absent at the Creation.’
21. Correspondence in Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
22. Draft of Modification Agreement sent to Shockley on November 27, 1951 and William Shockley to M.R. McKenney, unsent letter, 1952, Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
23. Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
24. Ibid.
25. Diebold, Automation, 153–157; Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
26. Noble, Forces of Production; Diebold, Automation; Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
27. Noble, Forces of Production.
28. Mervin Kelly to William Shockley, November, 12, 1952, Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
29. See Grayson, Measuring mass.
30. Harold Washburn to William Shockley, July 6, 1954, Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-4, Folder 11; Shockley, Transistor Switch.
31. Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Box B-6, Folder 8.
32. ITC offer of May 1954 in Shockley Papers, SC 222 95-153, Box B-4, Folder 11.
33. Shockley Papers, SC 222 95-153, Box B-4, Folder 11.
34. Ponturo, Analytical Support.
35. Shockley, Electro-optical Control System; Shockley Papers, SC222 95-153, Series 4, Box 3.
36. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman.
37. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman.
38. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman.
39. Morris, Classical to Modern Chemistry; See also Reinhardt, Shifting and Rearranging.
40. “Evolution of Process Instrumentation,” unpublished manuscript, 1976, Beckman Files.
41. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman; Lewis, Oral history; Beckman, Oral history.
42. Arnold Beckman to Steve Coha, November 8, 1951, Beckman Files.
43. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman; Bishop, Oral history; Nesbit, Interview; Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1952, Beckman Files; A. Strickler to Arnold Beckman, May 15, 1952, Beckman Files; McCraney to Arnold Beckman, May 15, 1952, Beckman Files.
44. Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1952, Beckman Files; Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman.
45. Beckman, Oral history; Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1954, Beckman Files.
46. Beckman Instruments, Report to Shareholders, October 1952, Beckman Files.
47. Beckman Instruments, Report to Shareholders, October 1952, Beckman Files; ‘Helipot,’ unpublished and undated manuscript, Beckman Files.
48. Beckman Instruments, Report to Shareholders, October 1952, Beckman Files.
49. Wadel and Wortham, ‘A Survey of Electronic;’ Bourne and Ford, ‘Historical Development.’
50. Allen Strickler to Arnold Beckman and Jack Bishop, June 2, 1953, Beckman Files; Allen Strickler to Jack Bishop, December 31, 1953, Beckman Files; Jack Bishop to Arnold Beckman, January 12, 1954, Beckman Files. Donner, ‘RF Linear Decelerator;’ Walter Donner, ‘Mass Spectrometry: Principles and Applications,’ June 30, 1954, Beckman Files; ‘The Beckman Model 150 RF Gas Analyzer,’ Undated, Beckman Files; ‘An RF Gas Analyzer,’ Undated, Beckman Files; Hoke Chism, ‘The Outlook for Mass Spectrometry in Well Logging,’ Undated, Beckman Files; ‘Beckman Model 150 Mass Spectrometer Specifications,’ August 5, 1955, Beckman Files.
51. ‘News,’ Journal of the Optical Society of America.
52. Beckman Bulletin, ca March 1953, Beckman Files; Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1953 and 1954, Beckman Files; Stock price data from Wall Street Journal.
53. Arga file, Beckman Files; Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1954, Beckman Files.
54. ‘Arnold Beckman,’ Business Week.
55. Beckman Instruments, Annual Report, 1954, Beckman Files.
56. Thackray and Myers, Arnold O. Beckman; Liston, Oral history.
57. Beckman Instruments, Major Installations, 1959, Beckman Files.
58. Beckman Instruments, Major Installations, 1959, Beckman Files. Historical ‘firsts’ memo, undated, Beckman Files.
59. Beckman Instruments, Major Installations, 1959, Beckman Files.
60. Wadel and Wortham, ‘A Survey of Electronic;’ Small, ‘General-Purpose Electronic.’
61. Paul Hammond to Arnold Beckman, October 18, 1955, Beckman Files; Paul Hammond to Arnold Beckman, October 19, 1955, Telegram, Beckman Files; Arnold Beckman to Paul Hammond, October, 25, 1955, Beckman Files; Paul Hammond to Arnold Beckman, October 24, 1955, Telegram, Beckman Files; Paul Hammond to Arnold Beckman, November 7, 1955, Beckman Files; Arnold Beckman, ‘Memo to File, Subject: Captain Paul Hammond,’ November 11, 1955, Beckman Files.
62. William Shockley to Arnold Beckman, February 8, 1955, Beckman Files. Forwarded by Beckman to colleagues with attached note, March 30, 1955.
63. Michael Stickney to Jack Bishop, March 31, 1955, Beckman Files.
64. Arnold Beckman to William Shockley, May 12, 1955, Beckman Files.
65. William Shockley to May Shockley, June 17, 1955, Shockley Papers, Series 4 Box 7, Folder 3; Shurkin, Broken Genius.
66. William Shockley to May Shockley, June 17, 1955, June 23, 1955, and July 16, 1955, Shockley Papers, Series 4 Box 7. Kaufman, ‘Laurance S. Rockefeller.’
67. See Beckman and Shockley correspondence, 1955, Beckman Files.
68. Misa, ‘Military Needs;’ Lécuyer and Brock, Makers of the Microchip.
69. Approved plan for the Solid State Physics activity at Bell Labs, August 1955, Shockley Papers.
70. Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire; Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley.
71. Dyer, TRW; Allison Shockley to William Shockley, July 6, 1955, Shockley Papers, B-4 Folder 3; Beckman, Oral history.
72. Arnold Beckman to Rear Admiral Horn, February 22, 1956, Beckman Files.
73. Beckman, Oral history; Newspaper clipping from November 1, 1956, Beckman Files.
74. Undated memo, likely May–September 1955, ‘Outline of proposal to Dr. Shockley,’ Beckman Files.
75. Beckman to Shockley, August 19, 1955, Beckman Files.
76. Undated memo, probably from August 1955, Beckman Files.
77. Ibid.
78. September 3, 1955 agreement draft, Beckman Files.
79. Feedback, September 1955, Beckman Files.
80. Arnold Beckman to William Shockley, October 3, 1955, Beckman Files; Leslie, The Cold War; Leslie and Kargon, ‘Selling Silicon Valley.’
81. Shockley–Beckman correspondence, November 1955, Beckman Files.
82. Statement for publicity release, Shockley to Beckman, November 1955, Shockley Papers, Correspondence, 1955.
83. ‘News.’ Chemical and Engineering News.