Ccarlsson at 06:29, 5 March 2021

2021-03-05T06:29:55Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:29, 4 March 2021
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	''by Tim J. Sturgeon''		''by Tim J. Sturgeon''

	''Originally written as a Masters Thesis, this is the ninth and final of a sequence of pages adapted from the full thesis.''		''Originally written as a Masters Thesis, this is the ninth and final of a sequence of pages adapted from the full thesis. For the bibliographic references in the text go [[Cooperation Among Electronics Firms and Conclusions#biblio\|here]].''

	[[Image:HP-200BR-Oscillator-c-1940.jpg]]		[[Image:HP-200BR-Oscillator-c-1940.jpg]]

Ccarlsson at 06:21, 5 March 2021

2021-03-05T06:21:52Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:21, 4 March 2021
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	I think they were 'every man for himself' much more back [east]. There never was a pre-war organization like WEMA. ...[East Coast] manufacturers would never cooperate [on standards for vacuum tubes], partly because of the patent situation. RCA dominated the patents and you couldn't leave RCA out, and if RCA was brought in, it wanted to boss everything. The group out here was involved in military production, instruments, and specialized stuff, where RCA patents weren't such a dominating feature. RCA wasn't trying to build a monopoly in the instrumentation business, for example." (Terman, 1978)</blockquote>		I think they were 'every man for himself' much more back [east]. There never was a pre-war organization like WEMA. ...[East Coast] manufacturers would never cooperate [on standards for vacuum tubes], partly because of the patent situation. RCA dominated the patents and you couldn't leave RCA out, and if RCA was brought in, it wanted to boss everything. The group out here was involved in military production, instruments, and specialized stuff, where RCA patents weren't such a dominating feature. RCA wasn't trying to build a monopoly in the instrumentation business, for example." (Terman, 1978)</blockquote>

	~~<font size=3>1. Theoretical Conclusions</font size>~~

	<font size=4>A Theoretical Critique and Deconstruction—Locational Windows</font size>		<font size=4>A Theoretical Critique and Deconstruction—Locational Windows</font size>
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	The real theoretical work to be done, then, is a careful working out of how peculiar regional characteristics are created and subsequently woven onto new firms as they emerge in the region. All of the electronics employees in the San Francisco Bay Area prior to the dramatic expansion that occurred with production for World War II could likely fit within one division of Hewlett-Packard today. Yet the practices worked out by the early pioneers have become known the world over as representative of the way things work in Silicon Valley.		The real theoretical work to be done, then, is a careful working out of how peculiar regional characteristics are created and subsequently woven onto new firms as they emerge in the region. All of the electronics employees in the San Francisco Bay Area prior to the dramatic expansion that occurred with production for World War II could likely fit within one division of Hewlett-Packard today. Yet the practices worked out by the early pioneers have become known the world over as representative of the way things work in Silicon Valley.


	<font size=4>The Innovative Milieu </font size>		<font size=4>The Innovative Milieu </font size>
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	Certainly the above criteria fit electronics development in the San Francisco Bay Area like a glove. In the popular press Silicon Valley has been referred to as "the New Athens" (Malone, 1984), whose semiconductor engineers are "New Alchemists" presided over by a "Silicon Priesthood" of electronics entrepreneurs (Hanson, 1982). As I have argued, the San Francisco Bay Area's geographical isolation from the developed East and its peculiar mix of resource abundance and shortage had an impact on the technologies that were developed and the organization of the industries that were developing those technologies. The region was at once a frontier and a booming industrial center awash in finance capital. Its role as the gateway to the West, and later, the Pacific Basin, gave a huge boost to the region's manufacturing activities. Further, the San Francisco Bay Area's initial surge of industrialization came at a time of international technological ferment in fields such as electric power and radio, technologies that would prove crucial to the region’s overcoming problems of geographic isolation and resource shortage.		Certainly the above criteria fit electronics development in the San Francisco Bay Area like a glove. In the popular press Silicon Valley has been referred to as "the New Athens" (Malone, 1984), whose semiconductor engineers are "New Alchemists" presided over by a "Silicon Priesthood" of electronics entrepreneurs (Hanson, 1982). As I have argued, the San Francisco Bay Area's geographical isolation from the developed East and its peculiar mix of resource abundance and shortage had an impact on the technologies that were developed and the organization of the industries that were developing those technologies. The region was at once a frontier and a booming industrial center awash in finance capital. Its role as the gateway to the West, and later, the Pacific Basin, gave a huge boost to the region's manufacturing activities. Further, the San Francisco Bay Area's initial surge of industrialization came at a time of international technological ferment in fields such as electric power and radio, technologies that would prove crucial to the region’s overcoming problems of geographic isolation and resource shortage.

	<font size=3>2. Policy Conclusions</font size>
			<font size=4>Policy Conclusions</font size>

	It is important to get the story of the origins of Silicon Valley right. The shadows of Frederick Terman and William Shockley loom large, not just in Silicon Valley, where they have honored places as the region’s founding fathers, but in countless other regions throughout the world that are trying to emulate Silicon Valley’s success. Development schemes include the incubation of “sunrise” technologies (following the William Shockley theme), and/ or the encouragement of cooperation between universities and industry in “high-tech” commercial ventures (following the Frederick Terman theme), and/ or the provision of "high tech" industrial parks (following the model of Stanford Industrial Park). These development models have met with very limited success (Mackali, 1981; Taylor, 1983; Saxenian, 1988b) but continue to absorb the resources of planning agencies and educational institutions in countless locations (for examples in the United States, see Table [, appendix).		It is important to get the story of the origins of Silicon Valley right. The shadows of Frederick Terman and William Shockley loom large, not just in Silicon Valley, where they have honored places as the region’s founding fathers, but in countless other regions throughout the world that are trying to emulate Silicon Valley’s success. Development schemes include the incubation of “sunrise” technologies (following the William Shockley theme), and/ or the encouragement of cooperation between universities and industry in “high-tech” commercial ventures (following the Frederick Terman theme), and/ or the provision of "high tech" industrial parks (following the model of Stanford Industrial Park). These development models have met with very limited success (Mackali, 1981; Taylor, 1983; Saxenian, 1988b) but continue to absorb the resources of planning agencies and educational institutions in countless locations (for examples in the United States, see Table [, appendix).
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	The lesson for planners and economic developers here is one of long developmental trajectories, not short ones. An assessment of local skills and manufacturing traditions is clearly an important first step toward any efforts in economic development. Silicon Valley was the fastest growing region in the United States during the early 1980s; but that growth came out of a place, not simply a technology; it was based on a long history of industrial development and innovation in the larger San Francisco Bay Area Area.		The lesson for planners and economic developers here is one of long developmental trajectories, not short ones. An assessment of local skills and manufacturing traditions is clearly an important first step toward any efforts in economic development. Silicon Valley was the fastest growing region in the United States during the early 1980s; but that growth came out of a place, not simply a technology; it was based on a long history of industrial development and innovation in the larger San Francisco Bay Area Area.

	~~<font size=3>3. Final Remarks</font size>~~

	Considered in isolation, any one of the stories of the early electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area told in this thesis has little significance, as interesting, funny, or surprising as they may or may not be. But when viewed as a whole, with all of the interrelationships between them in plain view, a picture of historical and regional development emerges that is truly astonishing. Conversely, in light of the long and fertile history of electronics on the west coast, the image of east coast electronics manufacturing prior to World War II, with the exception of Route 128, Boston, recedes in importance, from a center of industrial leadership in Fordist America, to a collection of behemoth firms selling relatively low technology products in high volumes, more interested in conspiring to retain monopoly markets that were handed to them by the government following World War I than in advancing the art of electronics.		Considered in isolation, any one of the stories of the early electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area told in this thesis has little significance, as interesting, funny, or surprising as they may or may not be. But when viewed as a whole, with all of the interrelationships between them in plain view, a picture of historical and regional development emerges that is truly astonishing. Conversely, in light of the long and fertile history of electronics on the west coast, the image of east coast electronics manufacturing prior to World War II, with the exception of Route 128, Boston, recedes in importance, from a center of industrial leadership in Fordist America, to a collection of behemoth firms selling relatively low technology products in high volumes, more interested in conspiring to retain monopoly markets that were handed to them by the government following World War I than in advancing the art of electronics.

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Cooperation Among Electronics Firms and Conclusions - Revision history

Ccarlsson at 06:29, 5 March 2021

Ccarlsson at 06:21, 5 March 2021

Ccarlsson: Created page with "''' Historical Essay ''' ''by Tim J. Sturgeon'' ''Originally written as a Masters Thesis, this..."