Santa Clara Valley Historical Association

The Making of Silicon Valley

Strong waves of creative energy have flowed in recent decades from a place known as “Silicon Valley,” encircling  — and changing — the world.

The phenomenon known since the 1970s as Silicon Valley can be traced to origins in the 1890s when Leland Stanford established a university at Palo Alto and urged that its students not only gain knowledge but be able to apply their learning in the real world. Pioneer professors, especially in the sciences and engineering, took Senator Stanford’s cue and collaborated with nearby industries from the outset.

As the 20th century began, wireless radio captured public attention, soon after introduction of the telegraph and the telephone. The wonder of Morse code or the human voice riding mysterious air waves excited adults and youths alike. Palo Alto became an early test bed for radio experiment. Later it became the locale for development of continuous-wave transmission powered by arc generators, thanks to engineer-entrepreneur Cyril Elwell. Elwell employed a radio research team including Lee de Forest, who in 1906 had invented a three-element vacuum tube in New York. In 1912 the team discovered that the tube, which de Forest  called the audion, could be rigged as an amplifier. This was a major breakthrough. It was first exploited in long-distance telephony, then in radio, and later in other tube-powered devices, such as radar, television, and computer systems, over a span of about 40 years.