Before the Garage: Beginnings of Silicon Valley, 1909–1960 | Stephen Adams
Stephen B. Adams, Lemelson Center fellow during the Fall of 2015. His research project is entitled “Before the Garage: The Beginnings of Silicon Valley, 1909-1960.” Stephen’s book project explores several Bay Area firms—such as Federal Telegraph, Farnsworth Television, Litton, Varian, Ampex, Eitel-MacCullough, and Hewlett-Packard—that were engaged in high-tech innovation several decades before the invention of the silicon semiconductors that eventually inspired the region’s nickname. Stephen’s study has strong resonance with with the Lemelson Center’s Places of Invention exhibition, and argues for the critical importance of military and federal government contracts in the emergence and growth of the Bay Area electronics industry.
A production of the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center. Video and production by Chris J Gauthier. Originally recorded on October 6, 2015
