CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-US">  <head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>Steve Blank Secret History of Silicon Valley</title> <link rel="pingback" href="https://steveblank.com/xmlrpc.php" /> <meta name='robots' content='max-image-preview:large' /> <style>img:is([sizes="auto" i], [sizes^="auto," i]) { contain-intrinsic-size: 3000px 1500px }</style>  <meta name="google-site-verification" content="NzQX03n5c3BUqAOH2ZZeaOzmFxIKopb99y0xo7ymJ7w" /> <meta name="msvalidate.01" content="77BB8773D8C1446AC1C1A19B8355A369" /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//secure.gravatar.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//stats.wp.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//widgets.wp.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//jetpack.wordpress.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//s0.wp.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//public-api.wordpress.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//0.gravatar.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//1.gravatar.com' /> <link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//2.gravatar.com' /> <link rel='preconnect' href='//i0.wp.com' /> <link rel='preconnect' href='//c0.wp.com' /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Steve Blank » Feed" href="https://steveblank.com/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Steve Blank » Comments Feed" href="https://steveblank.com/comments/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Steve Blank » Secret History of Silicon Valley Category Feed" href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/feed/" /> <script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/15.0.3\/72x72\/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/15.0.3\/svg\/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.7.1"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(i,n){var o,s,e;function c(e){try{var t={supportTests:e,timestamp:(new Date).valueOf()};sessionStorage.setItem(o,JSON.stringify(t))}catch(e){}}function p(e,t,n){e.clearRect(0,0,e.canvas.width,e.canvas.height),e.fillText(t,0,0);var t=new Uint32Array(e.getImageData(0,0,e.canvas.width,e.canvas.height).data),r=(e.clearRect(0,0,e.canvas.width,e.canvas.height),e.fillText(n,0,0),new Uint32Array(e.getImageData(0,0,e.canvas.width,e.canvas.height).data));return t.every(function(e,t){return e===r[t]})}function u(e,t,n){switch(t){case"flag":return n(e,"\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f","\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200b\u26a7\ufe0f")?!1:!n(e,"\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf3","\ud83c\uddfa\u200b\ud83c\uddf3")&&!n(e,"\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f","\ud83c\udff4\u200b\udb40\udc67\u200b\udb40\udc62\u200b\udb40\udc65\u200b\udb40\udc6e\u200b\udb40\udc67\u200b\udb40\udc7f");case"emoji":return!n(e,"\ud83d\udc26\u200d\u2b1b","\ud83d\udc26\u200b\u2b1b")}return!1}function f(e,t,n){var r="undefined"!=typeof WorkerGlobalScope&&self instanceof WorkerGlobalScope?new OffscreenCanvas(300,150):i.createElement("canvas"),a=r.getContext("2d",{willReadFrequently:!0}),o=(a.textBaseline="top",a.font="600 32px Arial",{});return e.forEach(function(e){o[e]=t(a,e,n)}),o}function t(e){var t=i.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=!0,i.head.appendChild(t)}"undefined"!=typeof Promise&&(o="wpEmojiSettingsSupports",s=["flag","emoji"],n.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},e=new Promise(function(e){i.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",e,{once:!0})}),new Promise(function(t){var n=function(){try{var e=JSON.parse(sessionStorage.getItem(o));if("object"==typeof e&&"number"==typeof e.timestamp&&(new Date).valueOf()<e.timestamp+604800&&"object"==typeof e.supportTests)return e.supportTests}catch(e){}return null}();if(!n){if("undefined"!=typeof Worker&&"undefined"!=typeof OffscreenCanvas&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&URL.createObjectURL&&"undefined"!=typeof Blob)try{var e="postMessage("+f.toString()+"("+[JSON.stringify(s),u.toString(),p.toString()].join(",")+"));",r=new Blob([e],{type:"text/javascript"}),a=new Worker(URL.createObjectURL(r),{name:"wpTestEmojiSupports"});return void(a.onmessage=function(e){c(n=e.data),a.terminate(),t(n)})}catch(e){}c(n=f(s,u,p))}t(n)}).then(function(e){for(var t in e)n.supports[t]=e[t],n.supports.everything=n.supports.everything&&n.supports[t],"flag"!==t&&(n.supports.everythingExceptFlag=n.supports.everythingExceptFlag&&n.supports[t]);n.supports.everythingExceptFlag=n.supports.everythingExceptFlag&&!n.supports.flag,n.DOMReady=!1,n.readyCallback=function(){n.DOMReady=!0}}).then(function(){return e}).then(function(){var e;n.supports.everything||(n.readyCallback(),(e=n.source||{}).concatemoji?t(e.concatemoji):e.wpemoji&&e.twemoji&&(t(e.twemoji),t(e.wpemoji)))}))}((window,document),window._wpemojiSettings); /* ]]> */ </script> <link rel='stylesheet' id='all-css-cb7ade03dc0ef7ebc2e1117796e7d27c' href='https://steveblank.com/_static/??-eJydUdtuwyAM/aFRtkVV1YdqnzI5YFEv5iIMivj7kqqV0j5sWV8Qh3PRwZ6TomC4WhRtRLQlKXrkaCbFNGbITUtpjDtPYdcFb/PK8CPaoyVARo+hPIDE0DArRgembXJ3bo3XHhNDWSTl3KmlpHPDrdeTInF1FHo4lgRm0j7aysvfIMcqyFpmSr3XWIN9wX0j1P1ha0AhRqscMGOf6C9oayDT1M9/jUDqKCZTKhTDE9occYaMFqxt1ysF95fzu69bSzQErDi6KA/gvuMvf/o4DO/H437/OVwAUzb8iA==' type='text/css' media='all' /> <style id='wp-block-library-inline-css'> .has-text-align-justify{text-align:justify;} </style> <style id='wp-emoji-styles-inline-css'> img.wp-smiley, img.emoji { display: inline !important; border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; height: 1em !important; width: 1em !important; margin: 0 0.07em !important; vertical-align: -0.1em !important; background: none !important; padding: 0 !important; } </style> <style id='jetpack-sharing-buttons-style-inline-css'> .jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list{display:flex;flex-direction:row;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:0;list-style-type:none;margin:5px;padding:0}.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list.has-small-icon-size{font-size:12px}.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list.has-normal-icon-size{font-size:16px}.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list.has-large-icon-size{font-size:24px}.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list.has-huge-icon-size{font-size:36px}@media print{.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list{display:none!important}}.editor-styles-wrapper .wp-block-jetpack-sharing-buttons{gap:0;padding-inline-start:0}ul.jetpack-sharing-buttons__services-list.has-background{padding:1.25em 2.375em} </style> <style id='classic-theme-styles-inline-css'> /*! This file is auto-generated */ .wp-block-button__link{color:#fff;background-color:#32373c;border-radius:9999px;box-shadow:none;text-decoration:none;padding:calc(.667em + 2px) calc(1.333em + 2px);font-size:1.125em}.wp-block-file__button{background:#32373c;color:#fff;text-decoration:none} </style> <style id='global-styles-inline-css'> :root{--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--square: 1;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--4-3: 4/3;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--3-4: 3/4;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--3-2: 3/2;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--2-3: 2/3;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--16-9: 16/9;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--9-16: 9/16;--wp--preset--color--black: #000000;--wp--preset--color--cyan-bluish-gray: #abb8c3;--wp--preset--color--white: #ffffff;--wp--preset--color--pale-pink: #f78da7;--wp--preset--color--vivid-red: #cf2e2e;--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-orange: #ff6900;--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-amber: #fcb900;--wp--preset--color--light-green-cyan: #7bdcb5;--wp--preset--color--vivid-green-cyan: #00d084;--wp--preset--color--pale-cyan-blue: #8ed1fc;--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue: #0693e3;--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple: #9b51e0;--wp--preset--gradient--vivid-cyan-blue-to-vivid-purple: linear-gradient(135deg,rgba(6,147,227,1) 0%,rgb(155,81,224) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--light-green-cyan-to-vivid-green-cyan: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(122,220,180) 0%,rgb(0,208,130) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-vivid-amber-to-luminous-vivid-orange: linear-gradient(135deg,rgba(252,185,0,1) 0%,rgba(255,105,0,1) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-vivid-orange-to-vivid-red: linear-gradient(135deg,rgba(255,105,0,1) 0%,rgb(207,46,46) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--very-light-gray-to-cyan-bluish-gray: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(238,238,238) 0%,rgb(169,184,195) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--cool-to-warm-spectrum: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(74,234,220) 0%,rgb(151,120,209) 20%,rgb(207,42,186) 40%,rgb(238,44,130) 60%,rgb(251,105,98) 80%,rgb(254,248,76) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--blush-light-purple: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(255,206,236) 0%,rgb(152,150,240) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--blush-bordeaux: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(254,205,165) 0%,rgb(254,45,45) 50%,rgb(107,0,62) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-dusk: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(255,203,112) 0%,rgb(199,81,192) 50%,rgb(65,88,208) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--pale-ocean: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(255,245,203) 0%,rgb(182,227,212) 50%,rgb(51,167,181) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--electric-grass: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(202,248,128) 0%,rgb(113,206,126) 100%);--wp--preset--gradient--midnight: linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(2,3,129) 0%,rgb(40,116,252) 100%);--wp--preset--font-size--small: 13px;--wp--preset--font-size--medium: 20px;--wp--preset--font-size--large: 36px;--wp--preset--font-size--x-large: 42px;--wp--preset--font-family--albert-sans: 'Albert Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--alegreya: Alegreya, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--arvo: Arvo, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--bodoni-moda: 'Bodoni Moda', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--bricolage-grotesque: 'Bricolage Grotesque', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--cabin: Cabin, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--chivo: Chivo, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--commissioner: Commissioner, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--cormorant: Cormorant, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--courier-prime: 'Courier Prime', monospace;--wp--preset--font-family--crimson-pro: 'Crimson Pro', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--dm-mono: 'DM Mono', monospace;--wp--preset--font-family--dm-sans: 'DM Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--dm-serif-display: 'DM Serif Display', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--domine: Domine, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--eb-garamond: 'EB Garamond', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--epilogue: Epilogue, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--fahkwang: Fahkwang, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--figtree: Figtree, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--fira-sans: 'Fira Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--fjalla-one: 'Fjalla One', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--fraunces: Fraunces, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--gabarito: Gabarito, system-ui;--wp--preset--font-family--ibm-plex-mono: 'IBM Plex Mono', monospace;--wp--preset--font-family--ibm-plex-sans: 'IBM Plex Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--ibarra-real-nova: 'Ibarra Real Nova', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--instrument-serif: 'Instrument Serif', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--inter: Inter, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--josefin-sans: 'Josefin Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--jost: Jost, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--libre-baskerville: 'Libre Baskerville', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--libre-franklin: 'Libre Franklin', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--literata: Literata, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--lora: Lora, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--merriweather: Merriweather, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--montserrat: Montserrat, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--newsreader: Newsreader, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--noto-sans-mono: 'Noto Sans Mono', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--nunito: Nunito, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--open-sans: 'Open Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--overpass: Overpass, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--pt-serif: 'PT Serif', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--petrona: Petrona, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--piazzolla: Piazzolla, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--playfair-display: 'Playfair Display', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--plus-jakarta-sans: 'Plus Jakarta Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--poppins: Poppins, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--raleway: Raleway, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--roboto: Roboto, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--roboto-slab: 'Roboto Slab', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--rubik: Rubik, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--rufina: Rufina, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--sora: Sora, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--source-sans-3: 'Source Sans 3', sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--source-serif-4: 'Source Serif 4', serif;--wp--preset--font-family--space-mono: 'Space Mono', monospace;--wp--preset--font-family--syne: Syne, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--texturina: Texturina, serif;--wp--preset--font-family--urbanist: Urbanist, sans-serif;--wp--preset--font-family--work-sans: 'Work Sans', sans-serif;--wp--preset--spacing--20: 0.44rem;--wp--preset--spacing--30: 0.67rem;--wp--preset--spacing--40: 1rem;--wp--preset--spacing--50: 1.5rem;--wp--preset--spacing--60: 2.25rem;--wp--preset--spacing--70: 3.38rem;--wp--preset--spacing--80: 5.06rem;--wp--preset--shadow--natural: 6px 6px 9px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);--wp--preset--shadow--deep: 12px 12px 50px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);--wp--preset--shadow--sharp: 6px 6px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);--wp--preset--shadow--outlined: 6px 6px 0px -3px rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), 6px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);--wp--preset--shadow--crisp: 6px 6px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);}:where(.is-layout-flex){gap: 0.5em;}:where(.is-layout-grid){gap: 0.5em;}body .is-layout-flex{display: flex;}.is-layout-flex{flex-wrap: wrap;align-items: center;}.is-layout-flex > :is(*, div){margin: 0;}body .is-layout-grid{display: grid;}.is-layout-grid > :is(*, div){margin: 0;}:where(.wp-block-columns.is-layout-flex){gap: 2em;}:where(.wp-block-columns.is-layout-grid){gap: 2em;}:where(.wp-block-post-template.is-layout-flex){gap: 1.25em;}:where(.wp-block-post-template.is-layout-grid){gap: 1.25em;}.has-black-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--black) !important;}.has-cyan-bluish-gray-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--cyan-bluish-gray) !important;}.has-white-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--white) !important;}.has-pale-pink-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-pink) !important;}.has-vivid-red-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-red) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-orange-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-orange) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-amber-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-amber) !important;}.has-light-green-cyan-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--light-green-cyan) !important;}.has-vivid-green-cyan-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-green-cyan) !important;}.has-pale-cyan-blue-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-cyan-blue-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-purple-color{color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple) !important;}.has-black-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--black) !important;}.has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--cyan-bluish-gray) !important;}.has-white-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--white) !important;}.has-pale-pink-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-pink) !important;}.has-vivid-red-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-red) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-orange) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-amber) !important;}.has-light-green-cyan-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--light-green-cyan) !important;}.has-vivid-green-cyan-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-green-cyan) !important;}.has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-purple-background-color{background-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple) !important;}.has-black-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--black) !important;}.has-cyan-bluish-gray-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--cyan-bluish-gray) !important;}.has-white-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--white) !important;}.has-pale-pink-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-pink) !important;}.has-vivid-red-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-red) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-orange-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-orange) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-amber-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-amber) !important;}.has-light-green-cyan-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--light-green-cyan) !important;}.has-vivid-green-cyan-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-green-cyan) !important;}.has-pale-cyan-blue-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--pale-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-cyan-blue-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue) !important;}.has-vivid-purple-border-color{border-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple) !important;}.has-vivid-cyan-blue-to-vivid-purple-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--vivid-cyan-blue-to-vivid-purple) !important;}.has-light-green-cyan-to-vivid-green-cyan-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--light-green-cyan-to-vivid-green-cyan) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-amber-to-luminous-vivid-orange-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-vivid-amber-to-luminous-vivid-orange) !important;}.has-luminous-vivid-orange-to-vivid-red-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-vivid-orange-to-vivid-red) !important;}.has-very-light-gray-to-cyan-bluish-gray-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--very-light-gray-to-cyan-bluish-gray) !important;}.has-cool-to-warm-spectrum-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--cool-to-warm-spectrum) !important;}.has-blush-light-purple-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--blush-light-purple) !important;}.has-blush-bordeaux-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--blush-bordeaux) !important;}.has-luminous-dusk-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--luminous-dusk) !important;}.has-pale-ocean-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--pale-ocean) !important;}.has-electric-grass-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--electric-grass) !important;}.has-midnight-gradient-background{background: var(--wp--preset--gradient--midnight) !important;}.has-small-font-size{font-size: var(--wp--preset--font-size--small) !important;}.has-medium-font-size{font-size: var(--wp--preset--font-size--medium) !important;}.has-large-font-size{font-size: var(--wp--preset--font-size--large) !important;}.has-x-large-font-size{font-size: var(--wp--preset--font-size--x-large) !important;}.has-albert-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--albert-sans) !important;}.has-alegreya-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--alegreya) !important;}.has-arvo-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--arvo) !important;}.has-bodoni-moda-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--bodoni-moda) !important;}.has-bricolage-grotesque-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--bricolage-grotesque) !important;}.has-cabin-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--cabin) !important;}.has-chivo-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--chivo) !important;}.has-commissioner-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--commissioner) !important;}.has-cormorant-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--cormorant) !important;}.has-courier-prime-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--courier-prime) !important;}.has-crimson-pro-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--crimson-pro) !important;}.has-dm-mono-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--dm-mono) !important;}.has-dm-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--dm-sans) !important;}.has-dm-serif-display-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--dm-serif-display) !important;}.has-domine-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--domine) !important;}.has-eb-garamond-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--eb-garamond) !important;}.has-epilogue-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--epilogue) !important;}.has-fahkwang-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--fahkwang) !important;}.has-figtree-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--figtree) !important;}.has-fira-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--fira-sans) !important;}.has-fjalla-one-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--fjalla-one) !important;}.has-fraunces-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--fraunces) !important;}.has-gabarito-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--gabarito) !important;}.has-ibm-plex-mono-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--ibm-plex-mono) !important;}.has-ibm-plex-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--ibm-plex-sans) !important;}.has-ibarra-real-nova-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--ibarra-real-nova) !important;}.has-instrument-serif-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--instrument-serif) !important;}.has-inter-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--inter) !important;}.has-josefin-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--josefin-sans) !important;}.has-jost-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--jost) !important;}.has-libre-baskerville-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--libre-baskerville) !important;}.has-libre-franklin-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--libre-franklin) !important;}.has-literata-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--literata) !important;}.has-lora-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--lora) !important;}.has-merriweather-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--merriweather) !important;}.has-montserrat-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--montserrat) !important;}.has-newsreader-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--newsreader) !important;}.has-noto-sans-mono-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--noto-sans-mono) !important;}.has-nunito-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--nunito) !important;}.has-open-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--open-sans) !important;}.has-overpass-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--overpass) !important;}.has-pt-serif-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--pt-serif) !important;}.has-petrona-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--petrona) !important;}.has-piazzolla-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--piazzolla) !important;}.has-playfair-display-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--playfair-display) !important;}.has-plus-jakarta-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--plus-jakarta-sans) !important;}.has-poppins-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--poppins) !important;}.has-raleway-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--raleway) !important;}.has-roboto-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--roboto) !important;}.has-roboto-slab-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--roboto-slab) !important;}.has-rubik-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--rubik) !important;}.has-rufina-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--rufina) !important;}.has-sora-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--sora) !important;}.has-source-sans-3-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--source-sans-3) !important;}.has-source-serif-4-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--source-serif-4) !important;}.has-space-mono-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--space-mono) !important;}.has-syne-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--syne) !important;}.has-texturina-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--texturina) !important;}.has-urbanist-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--urbanist) !important;}.has-work-sans-font-family{font-family: var(--wp--preset--font-family--work-sans) !important;} :where(.wp-block-post-template.is-layout-flex){gap: 1.25em;}:where(.wp-block-post-template.is-layout-grid){gap: 1.25em;} :where(.wp-block-columns.is-layout-flex){gap: 2em;}:where(.wp-block-columns.is-layout-grid){gap: 2em;} :root :where(.wp-block-pullquote){font-size: 1.5em;line-height: 1.6;} </style> <style id='jetpack-global-styles-frontend-style-inline-css'> :root { --font-headings: unset; --font-base: unset; --font-headings-default: -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif; --font-base-default: -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;} </style> <script type="text/javascript" id="jetpack-mu-wpcom-settings-js-before"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var JETPACK_MU_WPCOM_SETTINGS = {"assetsUrl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-content\/mu-plugins\/wpcomsh\/vendor\/automattic\/jetpack-mu-wpcom\/src\/build\/"}; /* ]]> */ </script> <link rel="https://api.w.org/" href="https://steveblank.com/wp-json/" /><link rel="alternate" title="JSON" type="application/json" href="https://steveblank.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories/16849552" /><link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="https://steveblank.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> <style>img#wpstats{display:none}</style> <meta name="description" content="Posts about Secret History of Silicon Valley written by steve blank" /> <style type="text/css"> #header h1 a, #header h1 a:hover, #header .description { color: #eb221e; } </style>   <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Steve Blank Secret History of Silicon Valley" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Steve Blank" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://s0.wp.com/i/blank.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:alt" content="" /> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" />  <link rel="icon" href="https://s0.wp.com/i/webclip.png" sizes="32x32" /> <link rel="icon" href="https://s0.wp.com/i/webclip.png" sizes="192x192" /> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="https://s0.wp.com/i/webclip.png" /> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://s0.wp.com/i/webclip.png" />  <script type='text/javascript'> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-85363375-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' === document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script>  </head> <body class="archive category category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley category-16849552"><div id="container"> <div id="header"> <div id="menu"> <ul id="menu-menu" class="menu"><li id="menu-item-12086" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-home menu-item-12086"><a href="http://steveblank.com">Home</a></li> <li id="menu-item-12085" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-12085"><a href="https://steveblank.com/about/">About Steve</a></li> <li id="menu-item-12083" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-12083"><a href="https://steveblank.com/books-for-startups/">Startup Books</a></li> <li id="menu-item-12080" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-12080"><a href="https://steveblank.com/slides/">Slides/Videos</a></li> <li id="menu-item-25611" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-25611"><a href="https://steveblank.com/raising-money/">Fund Raising</a></li> <li id="menu-item-12082" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-12082"><a href="https://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/">Tools!</a></li> <li id="menu-item-12084" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-12084"><a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/">Secret History</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="header-box"> <div id="header-image"> <img src="https://steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/cropped-100_3947-ks-far-away-download10.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div id="header-overlay"> <img src="https://steveblank.com/wp-content/themes/digg3/images/bg_header_overlay.png" alt="" /> </div> <div id="pagetitle"> <h1><a href="https://steveblank.com/" title="Steve Blank">Steve Blank</a></h1> </div> <div id="syndication"> <a href="https://steveblank.com/feed/" title="Syndicate this site using RSS" class="feed">Entries <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/comments/feed/" title="Syndicate comments using RSS">Comments RSS</a> </div> <div id="searchbox"> <form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://steveblank.com/"> <div> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search" /> </div> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div class="pagewrapper"><div id="page">  <div class="obar"> <ul> <li id="blog_subscription-3" class="widget widget_blog_subscription jetpack_subscription_widget"><h2 class="widgettitle">Email Subscription</h2> <div class="wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions__container"> <form action="#" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8" id="subscribe-blog-blog_subscription-3" data-blog="6599589" data-post_access_level="everybody" > <div id="subscribe-text"><p>Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.</p> </div> <p id="subscribe-email"> <label id="jetpack-subscribe-label" class="screen-reader-text" for="subscribe-field-blog_subscription-3"> Email Address </label> <input type="email" name="email" required="required" value="" id="subscribe-field-blog_subscription-3" placeholder="Email Address" /> </p> <p id="subscribe-submit" > <input type="hidden" name="action" value="subscribe"/> <input type="hidden" name="source" value="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/"/> <input type="hidden" name="sub-type" value="widget"/> <input type="hidden" name="redirect_fragment" value="subscribe-blog-blog_subscription-3"/> <input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="2366362b5b" /><input type="hidden" name="_wp_http_referer" value="/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" /> <button type="submit" class="wp-block-button__link" name="jetpack_subscriptions_widget" > Sign me up! </button> </p> </form> <div class="wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions__subscount"> Join 55.5K other subscribers </div> </div> </li> <li id="categories-356180491" class="widget widget_categories"><h2 class="widgettitle">Categories</h2> <ul> <li class="cat-item cat-item-64203016"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/2-minute-lessons/">2 Minute Lessons</a> (15) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-2450"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/air-force/">Air Force</a> (19) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1457175"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/ardent/">Ardent</a> (9) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-45014641"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/business-model-versus-business-plan/">Business Model versus Business Plan</a> (64) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-4787488"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/california-coastal-commission/">California Coastal Commission</a> (9) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1470"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/china/">China</a> (9) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-6987201"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/commencement-speeches/">Commencement Speeches</a> (9) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-23993"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/conservation/">Conservation</a> (4) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-3075385"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/convergent-technologies/">Convergent Technologies</a> (4) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-635806586"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/corporate-govt-innovation/">Corporate/Gov't Innovation</a> (131) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697702677"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/covid-19-recovery/">Covid-19/Recovery</a> (10) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1874987"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/">Customer Development</a> (323) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-25337102"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/customer-development-manifesto/">Customer Development Manifesto</a> (34) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-16840"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/epiphany/">E.piphany</a> (13) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967638"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/educators-summit/">Educators Summit</a> (7) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967634"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/esl/">ESL</a> (8) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-64567312"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/familycareerculture/">Family/Career/Culture</a> (81) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967641"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/gordian-knot-center-for-national-security-innovation/">Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation</a> (11) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-479441927"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/hacking-for-defense/">Hacking For Defense</a> (41) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-526158618"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/hacking-for-diplomacy/">Hacking for Diplomacy</a> (10) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967637"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/hacking-for-recovery/">Hacking for Recovery</a> (5) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-105397"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/harvard-business-review/">Harvard Business Review</a> (12) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-684268037"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/innovation-doctrine/">Innovation Doctrine</a> (3) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-340390495"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/innovation-outposts/">Innovation Outposts</a> (4) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-217160777"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/investment-readiness-level/">Investment Readiness Level</a> (6) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-53169179"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/lean-launchpad/">Lean LaunchPad</a> (117) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-261983049"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/life-sciences-nih/">Life Sciences (NIH)</a> (26) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-16879037"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/market-types/">Market Types</a> (15) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-175"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/marketing/">Marketing</a> (27) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-28276971"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/mips-computers/">MIPS Computers</a> (2) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967640"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/national-security/">National Security</a> (40) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-2064"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/navy/">Navy</a> (6) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-34826422"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/nih-national-institutes-of-health/">NIH (National Institutes of Health)</a> (17) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-16770755"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/nsf-national-science-foundation/">NSF (National Science Foundation)</a> (18) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-16848661"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/rocket-science-games/">Rocket Science Games</a> (10) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-137272104"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/science-and-industrial-policy/">Science and Industrial Policy</a> (27) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-16849552 current-cat"><a aria-current="page" href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> (26) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-50184180"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/siriusxm-radio-show/">SiriusXM Radio Show</a> (50) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-235742"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/supermac/">SuperMac</a> (12) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1591"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/teaching/">Teaching</a> (178) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-6"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/technology/">Technology</a> (86) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967636"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/technology-innovation-and-modern-war/">Technology Innovation and Great Power Competition</a> (17) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-697967642"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/technology-innovation-and-modern-war-2/">Technology Innovation and Modern War</a> (20) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-429989"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/tesla/">Tesla</a> (5) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/uncategorized/">Uncategorized</a> (8) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-202"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/venture-capital/">Venture Capital</a> (82) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1087649"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/vertical-markets/">Vertical Markets</a> (5) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-715437"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/zilog/">Zilog</a> (5) </li> </ul> </li> <li id="rss_links-3" class="widget widget_rss_links"><h2 class="widgettitle">Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed</h2> <ul><li><a target="_self" href="https://steveblank.com/feed/" title="Subscribe to posts">RSS - Posts</a></li><li><a target="_self" href="https://steveblank.com/comments/feed/" title="Subscribe to comments">RSS - Comments</a></li></ul> </li> <li id="recent-posts-2" class="widget widget_recent_entries"> <h2 class="widgettitle">Recent Posts</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/10/22/quantum-computing-an-update/">Quantum Computing – An Update</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/10/08/how-saboteurs-threaten-innovation-and-what-to-do-about-it/">How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation–and What to Do About It</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/10/05/what-does-product-market-fit-sound-like-this/">What Does Product Market Fit Sound Like? This.</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/09/17/the-directory-of-dod-program-executive-offices-and-officers-peos/">How To Find Your Customer In the Dept of Defense – The Directory of DoD Program Executive Offices</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/08/13/security-clearances-at-the-speed-of-startups/">Security Clearances at the Speed of Startups</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/07/30/why-large-organizations-struggle-with-disruption-and-what-to-do-about-it/">Why Large Organizations Struggle With Disruption, and What to Do About It</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/06/27/lean-launchpad-stanford-2024-8-teams-in-8-companies-out/">Lean LaunchPad @Stanford 2024 – 8 Teams In, 8 Companies Out</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/06/24/hacking-for-defense-stanford-2024-lessons-learned-presentations/">Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2024 – Lessons Learned Presentations</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/06/03/youre-invited-hacking-for-defense-and-lean-launchpad-final-presentations/">You’re Invited: Hacking for Defense and Lean LaunchPad Final Presentations</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/26/gordon-bell-r-i-p/">Gordon Bell R.I.P.</a> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="search-2" class="widget widget_search"><form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://steveblank.com/"> <div> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search" /> </div> </form></li> <li id="archives-2" class="widget widget_archive"><h2 class="widgettitle">Archives</h2> <ul> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/10/'>October 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/09/'>September 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/08/'>August 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/07/'>July 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/06/'>June 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/05/'>May 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/04/'>April 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/03/'>March 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/02/'>February 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2024/01/'>January 2024</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/12/'>December 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/11/'>November 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/10/'>October 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/09/'>September 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/08/'>August 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/07/'>July 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/04/'>April 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/02/'>February 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2023/01/'>January 2023</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/11/'>November 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/10/'>October 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/09/'>September 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/06/'>June 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/05/'>May 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/04/'>April 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/03/'>March 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2022/01/'>January 2022</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/12/'>December 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/11/'>November 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/10/'>October 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/09/'>September 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/08/'>August 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/07/'>July 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/06/'>June 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/05/'>May 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/04/'>April 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/03/'>March 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/02/'>February 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2021/01/'>January 2021</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/12/'>December 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/11/'>November 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/10/'>October 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/09/'>September 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/08/'>August 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/07/'>July 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/06/'>June 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/05/'>May 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/04/'>April 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/03/'>March 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/02/'>February 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2020/01/'>January 2020</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/12/'>December 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/11/'>November 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/10/'>October 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/09/'>September 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/06/'>June 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/05/'>May 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/04/'>April 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/03/'>March 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2019/01/'>January 2019</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/12/'>December 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/11/'>November 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/10/'>October 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/09/'>September 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/08/'>August 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/07/'>July 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/06/'>June 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/04/'>April 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/03/'>March 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/02/'>February 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2018/01/'>January 2018</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/11/'>November 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/10/'>October 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/09/'>September 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/08/'>August 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/07/'>July 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/06/'>June 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/05/'>May 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/04/'>April 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/03/'>March 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/02/'>February 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2017/01/'>January 2017</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/12/'>December 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/11/'>November 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/10/'>October 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/09/'>September 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/08/'>August 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/07/'>July 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/06/'>June 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/05/'>May 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/04/'>April 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/03/'>March 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/02/'>February 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2016/01/'>January 2016</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/12/'>December 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/11/'>November 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/10/'>October 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/09/'>September 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/08/'>August 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/07/'>July 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/06/'>June 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/05/'>May 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/03/'>March 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/02/'>February 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2015/01/'>January 2015</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/12/'>December 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/11/'>November 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/10/'>October 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/09/'>September 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/08/'>August 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/07/'>July 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/06/'>June 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/05/'>May 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/04/'>April 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/03/'>March 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/02/'>February 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2014/01/'>January 2014</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/12/'>December 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/11/'>November 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/10/'>October 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/09/'>September 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/08/'>August 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/07/'>July 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/06/'>June 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/05/'>May 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/04/'>April 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/03/'>March 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/02/'>February 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2013/01/'>January 2013</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/12/'>December 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/11/'>November 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/10/'>October 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/09/'>September 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/08/'>August 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/07/'>July 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/06/'>June 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/05/'>May 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/04/'>April 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/03/'>March 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/02/'>February 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2012/01/'>January 2012</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/12/'>December 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/11/'>November 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/10/'>October 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/09/'>September 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/08/'>August 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/07/'>July 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/06/'>June 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/05/'>May 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/04/'>April 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/03/'>March 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/02/'>February 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2011/01/'>January 2011</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/12/'>December 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/11/'>November 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/10/'>October 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/09/'>September 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/08/'>August 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/07/'>July 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/06/'>June 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/05/'>May 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/04/'>April 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/03/'>March 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/02/'>February 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2010/01/'>January 2010</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/12/'>December 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/11/'>November 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/10/'>October 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/09/'>September 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/08/'>August 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/07/'>July 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/06/'>June 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/05/'>May 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/04/'>April 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/03/'>March 2009</a></li> <li><a href='https://steveblank.com/2009/02/'>February 2009</a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="pages-2" class="widget widget_pages"><h2 class="widgettitle">Other Stuff</h2> <ul> <li class="page_item page-item-2"><a href="https://steveblank.com/about/">About Steve</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-22"><a href="https://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/">Startup Tools</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-62"><a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/">Secret History</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-68"><a href="https://steveblank.com/books-for-startups/">Books for Startups</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-11025"><a href="https://steveblank.com/slides/">Slides/Videos</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-25609"><a href="https://steveblank.com/raising-money/">Raising Money</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div>  <div class="narrowcolumnwrapper"><div class="narrowcolumn"> <div id="content" class="content"> <div class="post-30827 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-corporate-govt-innovation category-national-security category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-30827"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" rel="bookmark">Secret History – When Kodak Went to War with Polaroid</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">May 16, 2024</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p style="font-weight: 400;">This part 2 of the Secret History of Polaroid and Edwin Land. <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read part 1</a> for context.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kodak and Polaroid, the two most famous camera companies of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, had a great partnership for 20+ years. Then in an inexplicable turnabout Kodak decided to destroy Polaroid’s business. To this day, every story of why Kodak went to war with Polaroid is wrong.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The real reason can be found in the highly classified world of overhead reconnaissance satellites.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Here’s the real story.</p> <hr /> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In April 1969 Kodak tore up a 20-year manufacturing partnership with Polaroid. In a surprise to everyone at Polaroid, Kodak declared war. They terminated their agreement to supply Polaroid with negative film for Polacolor – the only color film Polaroid had on the market. Kodak gave Polaroid two years’ notice but immediately raised the film price 10% in the U.S. and 50% internationally. And Kodak publicly announced they were going to make film for Polaroid’s cameras – a knife to the heart for Polaroid as film sales were what made Polaroid profitable. Shortly thereafter, Kodak announced they were also going to make instant cameras in direct competition with Polaroid cameras. In short, they were going after every part of Polaroid’s business.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">What happened in April 1969 they caused Kodak to react this way?</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">And what was the result?</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><em>Read the sidebar</em></strong><em> for a Background on Film and Instant Photography </em></p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;"> <p>Today we take for granted that images can be seen and sent instantaneously on all our devices — phone, computers, tablets, etc. But that wasn’t always the case.</p> <p><strong>Film Photography<br /> </strong>It wasn’t until the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century that it was possible to permanently capture an image. For the next 30 years photography was in the hands of an elite set of professionals. Each photo they took was captured on individual glass plates they coated with chemicals. To make a print, the photographers had to process the plates in more chemicals. Neither the cameras nor processing were within the realm of a consumer. But in 1888 Kodak changed that when they introduced a real disruptive innovation – a camera preloaded with <a href="https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/eastman-kodak.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a spool of strippable paper film with 100-exposures that consumers</a>, rather than professional photographers, could use. When the roll was finished, the entire camera was sent back to the Kodak lab in Rochester, NY, where it was reloaded and returned to the customer while the first roll was being processed. But the real revolution happened in 1900 when Kodak introduced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Brownie">the Brownie camera</a> with replaceable film spools. This made photography available to a mass market. You just sent the film to be developed, not the camera.</p> <p>Up until 1936 consumer cameras captured images in black in white. That year Kodak introduced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome">Kodachrome</a>, the first color film for slides. In 1942, they introduced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodacolor_(still_photography)">Kodacolor</a> for prints.</p> <p>While consumers now had easy-to-use cameras, the time between taking a picture and seeing the picture had a long delay. The film inside the camera needed to be developed and printed. After you clicked the shutter and took the picture, you sent the film to a drop-off point in a store. They sent your film to a large <a href="https://youtu.be/hFyM_26E40U?feature=shared&t=40" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regional photo processing lab</a> that developed the film (using a bath of chemicals), then printed the photos as physical pictures. You would get your pictures back in days or a week. (In the late 1970s, mini-photo processing labs dramatically shortened that process, offering 1-hour photo development.) Meanwhile…</p> <p><strong>Instant Photography<br /> </strong>In 1937 Edwin Land co-founded Polaroid to make an optical filter called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polarizers</a>. They were used in photographic filters, glare-free sunglasses, and products that gave the illusion of 3-D. During WWII Polaroid made anti-glare goggles for soldiers and pilots, gun sights, viewfinders, cameras, and other optical devices with polarizing lenses.</p> <p>In 1948 Polaroid pivoted. They launched what would become synonymous with an “Instant Camera.” In its first instant camera — the<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBoOjxEN6r0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Model 95</a> – the film contained all the necessary chemicals to “instantly” develop a photo. The instant film was made of two parts – a negative sheet that lined up with a positive sheet with the chemicals in between squeezed through a set of rollers. <em>The negative sheet was manufactured by Kodak</em>. Instead of days or weeks, it now took less than 90 seconds to see your picture.</p> </div> </div> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30865" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/polaroid-camera-ad/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?fit=1410%2C1126&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1410,1126" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Polaroid camera ad" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?fit=468%2C374&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30865" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?resize=468%2C374&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="374" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?resize=1024%2C818&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?resize=300%2C240&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?resize=150%2C120&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?resize=768%2C613&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?w=1410&ssl=1 1410w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polaroid-camera-ad.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;"> <p>For the next 30 years Polaroid made evolutionary better Instant Cameras. In 1963 Polacolor Instant color film was introduced. In 1973 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_SX-70" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera</a> was introduced with a new type of instant film that no longer had to be peeled apart.</p> </div> </div> <h3 style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>A Secret Grudge Match</strong></h3> <p style="font-weight: 400;">To understand why Kodak tried to put Polaroid out of business you need to know some of most classified secrets of the Cold War.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Project GENETRIX and The U-2</strong><em> – Balloon and Airplane Reconnaissance over the Soviet Union<br /> </em>During the Cold War with the Soviet Union the U.S. intelligence community was <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1960-08-19b.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">desperate for intelligence</a>. In the early 1950s the U.S. sent <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unmanned reconnaissance balloons</a> over the Soviet Union.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Next, from 1956-1960 the CIA flew the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2">Lockheed U-2</a> spy plane over the Soviet Union on 24 missions, taking <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/st04.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">photos of its military installations</a>. (The U-2 program was <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB74/U2-03.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kicked off by a 1954 memo from Edwin Land (Polaroid CEO) to the director of the CIA</a>.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The U-2 cameras used Kodak film, processed in a secret Kodak lab codenamed <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/history/csnr/programs/docs/Bridgehead%20Eastman%20Kodak%20Company.pdf?ver=2019-03-29-1031353-233&timestamp=1553870223588" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bridgehead</a>. In May 1960 a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident">U-2 was shot down</a> inside Soviet territory and the U.S. stopped aircraft overflights of the Soviet Union. But luckily in 1956 the U.S. intelligence community had concluded that the future of gathering intelligence over the Soviet Union would be with spy satellites orbiting in space.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Air Force – SAMOS – </strong><em> 1<sup>st</sup> Generation Photo Reconnaissance Satellites<br /> </em>By the late 1950s the Department of Defense decided that the future of photo reconnaissance satellites would be via an Air Force program codenamed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos_(satellite)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SAMOS</a>.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30838" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/bimat-scanner/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?fit=195%2C122&ssl=1" data-orig-size="195,122" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="BIMAT Scanner" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?fit=195%2C122&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?fit=195%2C122&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-30838 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?resize=195%2C122&ssl=1" alt="" width="195" height="122" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?w=195&ssl=1 195w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BIMAT-Scanner.jpg?resize=150%2C94&ssl=1 150w" sizes="(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The first <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA606620.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SAMOS</a> satellites would have a camera that would take pictures and develop them while orbiting earth using special <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP33-02415A000500120032-7.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kodak Bimat film</a>, then scan the negative and transmit the image to a ground station. After multiple rocket failures and realization that the resolution and number of images the satellite could downlink would be woefully inadequate for the type and number of targets (it would take 3 hours to downlink the photos from a single pass), the film read-out SAMOS satellites were canceled.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><em>Sidebar</em></strong><em>– Kodak Goes to The Moon<br /> </em></p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;">While the Kodak Bimat film and scanner <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/mol/824.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">never made it</a> as an intelligence reconnaissance system around the earth, it did make it to the moon. <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/lunar-orbiters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA’s Lunar Orbiter</a> program to map the moon <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/book/introduction.shtml#:~:text=Kodak%20Bimat%20film%20consists%20of,contact%20on%20the%20processing%20drum." target="_blank" rel="noopener">got their Kodak <u>Bimat film</u> and scanner camera</a>s from the defunct SAMOS program. In 1966 and ‘67 NASA successfully launched 5 Lunar Orbiters around the moon developing the film onboard and transmitting a total of 3,062pictures to earth. (The resolution of the images and the fact that it took <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19660009057/downloads/19660009057.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40 minutes to send each photo</a> back was fine for NASA’s needs.)</div> </div> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>CIA’s CORONA – </strong><em>2<sup>nd</sup> Generation Photo Reconnaissance Satellites<br /> </em>It was the CIA’s <a href="https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/corona-americas-first-imaging-satellite-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CORONA film-based photo reconnaissance satellites</a> that first succeeded in returning intelligence photos from space. Designed as a rapid cheap hack, it was intended as a stopgap until more capable systems entered service. Fairchild built the first few CORONA cameras, but ultimately <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/CAL-Records/Cabinet2/DrawerA/2%20A%200090.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Itek became the camera system s</a>upplier. CORONA sent the exposed film back to earth in reentry vehicles that were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdsn4snbzjo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recovered in mid-air</a>. The film was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_processing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> by Kodak at their secret <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/history/csnr/programs/docs/Bridgehead%20Eastman%20Kodak%20Company.pdf?ver=2019-03-29-1031353-233&timestamp=1553870223588" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bridgehead</a> lab and sent to intelligence analysts in the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81M00980R001900010055-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center</a> (NPIC) who examined the film. (While orbiting 94 miles above the earth the cameras achieved 4 ½-foot resolution.) CORONA was kept in service from 1960 to 1972, completing 145 missions.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30857" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/corona-recon-systems-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?fit=310%2C365&ssl=1" data-orig-size="310,365" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="CORONA Recon Systems" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?fit=255%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?fit=310%2C365&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30857 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?resize=255%2C300&ssl=1" alt="" width="255" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?resize=255%2C300&ssl=1 255w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?resize=127%2C150&ssl=1 127w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CORONA-Recon-Systems.png?w=310&ssl=1 310w" sizes="(max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Film recovery via reentry vehicles would be the standard for the next 16 years.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sidebar</strong> – <em>The CIA versus the National Reconnaissance Office</em> (NRO)</p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;"> <p>With the CIA’s success with CORONA, and the failure of the Air Force original SAMOS program, the Department of Defense felt the CIA was usurping its role in Reconnaissance. In 1961 it was agreed that all satellite Reconnaissance would be coordinated by a single <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB35/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Reconnaissance Office</a> (the NRO). For 31 years satellite and spy plane reconnaissance was organized as four separate covert programs:</p> <p>Program A – Air Force satellite programs: SAMOS, GAMBIT, DORIAN…<br /> Program B – CIA satellite programs: CORONA, HEXAGON, KEENAN…<br /> Program C – Navy satellite programs: GRAB, POPPY …<br /> Program D – CIA/Air Force reconnaissance Aircraft: U-2, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12">A-12</a>/SR-71, ST/POLLY, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21">D-21</a>…</p> <p>While this setup was rational on paper, the CIA and NRO would have a <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/monograph/nro/nromono.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decades -long political battle over who would specify, design, build and task reconnaissance satellites</a>. The CIA’s outside expert on imaging reconnaissance satellites was… Edwin Land CEO of Polaroid.</p> <p>The NRO’s existence wasn’t even acknowledged until 1992.</p> </div> </div> <p><strong>Air Force/NRO – GAMBIT</strong> – <em>3<sup>rd</sup> Generation Film Photo Reconnaissance Satellites<br /> </em>After the failure of the SAMOS on-orbit scanning system, the newly established National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) regrouped and adopted film recovery via reentry vehicles.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Prodded by the NRO and Air Force, <a href="https://archive.org/details/nro-gamhex-docs/4%20-%20Eastman%20Kodak%20Blanket%20Proposal/mode/2up?view=theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Kodak</em> put in an “unsolicited” proposal</a> for a next-generation imaging satellite codenamed <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1279/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GAMBIT</a>. Kodak cameras on GAMBIT had <em>much</em> better resolution than the Itek cameras on CORONA. In orbit 80 miles up, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIakZq0JGk&t=314s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GAMBIT</a> had high-resolution spotting capability – but in a narrow field of view. This complemented the CORONA broad area imaging. GAMBIT-1 (KH-7) produced images of 2-4 feet in resolution. It flew for 38 missions from July 1963 to June 1967. The follow-on program, GAMBIT-3 (KH-8), provided even sharper images with resolution measured in inches. GAMBiT-3 flew for 54 missions from July 1966 to August 1984. The resolution of GAMBITs photos wouldn’t be surpassed for decades.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30836" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/satellite-recon-systems-gambit/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?fit=2880%2C1620&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2880,1620" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Satellite Recon Systems GAMBIT" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?fit=468%2C263&ssl=1" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-30836" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=468%2C263&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="263" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=150%2C84&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-GAMBIT.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>CIA – HEXAGON</strong> – <em>4<sup>th</sup> Generation Film Photo Reconnaissance Satellites<br /> </em>Meanwhile the CIA decided <u>it</u> was going to build the next generation reconnaissance satellite after GAMBIT. Hexagon represented another technological leap forward. Unlike GAMBIT that had a narrow field of view, the CIA proposed a satellite that could photograph a 300-nautical-mile-wide by 16.8-nautical-mile-long area in a single frame. Unlike GAMBIT whose cameras were made by Kodak, <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/GAMHEX/GAMBIT%20and%20HEXAGON%20Histories/2.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HEXAGON’s</a> cameras would be made by Perkin Elmer.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30837" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/satellite-recon-systems-hexagon/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?fit=2880%2C1620&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2880,1620" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Satellite Recon Systems hexagon" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?fit=468%2C263&ssl=1" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-30837" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=468%2C263&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="263" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=150%2C84&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Satellite-Recon-Systems-hexagon.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>CIA Versus NRO – HEXAGON versus DORIAN<br /> </strong>In 1969 the new Nixon administration was looking to cut spending and the intelligence budget was a big target. There were several new, very expensive programs being built: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-9_Hexagon">HEXAGON</a>, the CIA’s school bus-sized film satellite; and a military space station: the NRO/Air Force <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2560/1">Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL)</a> with its <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4654/1">DORIAN KH-10 film-based camera</a> (made by Kodak). There was also a proposed high-resolution GAMBIT-follow-on satellite called FROG (Film Read Out GAMBIT) – again with a Kodak <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP33-02415A000500120032-7.pdf">Bimat camera</a> and a laser scanner.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In March 1969, President Nixon canceled the CIA’s HEXAGON satellite program in favor of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Orbiting_Laboratory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manned Orbiting Laboratory</a> (MOL), the Air Force space station with the Kodak DORIAN camera. It looked like Kodak had won and the CIA’s proposal lost.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">However, the CIA fought back.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The next month, in April 1969, the Director of the CIA used the recommendation of CIA’s reconnaissance intelligence panel – <em>headed by Edwin Land (Polaroid’s CEO)</em> to get President Nixon to reverse his decision. Land’s panel argued that HEXAGON was essential to monitoring arms control treaties with the Soviet Union. Land said <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/mol/705.pdf">DORIAN would be useless because astronauts on the military space station could only photograph small amounts of territory, missing other things that could be a few miles away</a>. In contrast, HEXAGON covered so much territory that there was simply no place for the Soviet Union to hide any forbidden bombers or missiles.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Land’s reconnaissance panel recommended: 1) canceling the manned part of the NRO/Air Force <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2560/1">Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL)</a> and 2) using the DORIAN optics in a robotic system (which was ultimately never built) and 3) urging the President to instead start “highest priority” development of a “simple, long-life imaging satellite, using an array of photosensitive elements to convert the image to electrical signals for immediate transmission.” (This would become the KH-11 KEENAN, <em>ending the need for film-based cameras in space.)</em></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The result was:</p> <ul> <li>Nixon <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/mol/698.pdf">canceled</a> NRO/Air Force <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/mol/800.pdf">Manned Orbiting Laboratory</a> (MOL) and its Kodak <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4654/1">DORIAN film-based camera</a>,</li> <li>Nixon told the CIA to build the HEXAGON satellite with its Perkin Elmer camera.</li> </ul> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Over the next two years, Land <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/MAJOR%20NRO%20PROGRAMS%20&%20PROJECTS/NRO%20EOI/SC-2016-00001_C05093212.pdf">lobbied against the GAMBIT follow-on called FROG and after a contentious fight effectively killed it</a> in 1971. But most importantly Nixon gave the go-ahead to build the CIA’s KH-11 KEENAN electronic imaging satellite – <em>dooming film-based satellites – and all of Kodak’s satellite business.</em></p> <h3 style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Why Did Kodak Go to War With Polaroid?</strong></h3> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Finally we can now understand why Kodak was furious at Polaroid. <em><u>The CEO of Polaroid killed Kodak’s satellite reconnaissance business.</u></em></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kodak’s 1970 annual report said, “Government sales dropped precipitously from $248 million in 1969 to $160 million in 1970, a decline of nearly 36 percent.” (That’s <em>¾’s of a billion dollars</em> in today’s dollars.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The DORIAN camera on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and the very high-resolution GAMBIT FROG follow-on <em>were all Kodak camera systems</em> built in Kodak’s K-Program, a highly classified segment of the company. In April 1969 when MOL/DORIAN KH-10 was canceled, Kodak laid off 1,500 people from that division.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kodak also had 1<a href="https://rbj.net/2012/11/23/undercover-covert-photographic-operations-center-existed-at-kodak-plant/">,400 people in a special facility that developed the film</a> codenamed <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/history/csnr/programs/docs/Bridgehead%20Eastman%20Kodak%20Company.pdf?ver=2019-03-29-1031353-233&timestamp=1553870223588">Bridgehead</a>. With film gone from reconnaissance satellites, only small amounts were needed for U-2 flights. Another 1,000+ people ultimately would be let go.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Louis Eilers had been Kodak president since 1967 and in 1969 became CEO. He had been concerned about Land’s advocacy of the CIA’s programs that shut out Kodak of HEXAGON. But he went ballistic when he learned of the role Edwin Land played in killing the Manned Orbiting Lab (MOL) and the Kodak DORIAN KH-10 camera.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Kodak’s Revenge and Ultimate Loss<br /> </strong>In 1963 when Polaroid launched its first color instant film — Polacolor – Kodak manufactured Polacolor’s film negative. By 1969 Polaroid was paying Kodak $50 million a year to manufacture that film. (~$400 million in today’s dollars.) Kodak tore up that manufacturing relationship in 1969 after the MOL/DORIAN cancelation.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kodak then went further. In 1969 they started two projects: create their own instant cameras to compete with Polaroid and create instant film for Polaroid cameras – Polaroid made their profits on selling film.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In 1976 Kodak came out with two instant cameras — the EK-4 and EK-6 –and instant film that could be used in Polaroid cameras. Polaroid immediately sued, claiming Kodak had infringed on Polaroid patents. <a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30842" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/kodak-ek-4/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?fit=680%2C540&ssl=1" data-orig-size="680,540" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Kodak EK-4" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?fit=300%2C238&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?fit=468%2C372&ssl=1" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-30842" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?resize=300%2C238&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="238" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?resize=300%2C238&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?resize=150%2C119&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Kodak-EK-4.jpg?w=680&ssl=1 680w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>The lawsuit went on for 9 years. Finally, in 1985 a court ruled that Kodak infringed on Polaroid patents and Kodak was forced to pull their cameras off store shelves and stop making them. Six years later, in 1991, Polaroid was awarded $925 million in damages from Kodak.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Epilogue<br /> </strong>1976 was a landmark year for both Kodak and Polaroid. It was the beginning of their 15-year patent battle, but it was also the beginning of the end of film photography from space. <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">That December the first digital imaging satellite, KH-11 KEENAN, went into orbit</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">After Land’s forced retirement in 1982, Polaroid never introduced a completely new product again. Everything was a refinement or repackaging of what it had figured out already. By the early ’90s, the alarms were clanging away; bankruptcy came in 2001.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kodak could never leave its roots in film and missed being a leader in digital photography. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, exited legacy businesses and sold off its patents before re-emerging as a sharply smaller company in 2013.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Today, descendants of the KH-11 KENNEN continue to operate in orbit.</p> <hr /> <p><strong>Read all the Secret History posts <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></strong></p> <iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="91" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1825626108&width=false&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=false&show_comments=false&color=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false"></iframe> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Secret%20History%20%E2%80%93%20When%20Kodak%20Went%20to%20War%20with%20Polaroid&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2024%2F05%2F16%2Fsecret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="c11ffc6b74" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" data-text="Secret History – When Kodak Went to War with Polaroid" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2024%2F05%2F16%2Fsecret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FPolaroid-camera-ad-1024x818.jpg&description=Secret%20History%20%E2%80%93%20When%20Kodak%20Went%20to%20War%20with%20Polaroid" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="Secret History – When Kodak Went to War with Polaroid" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-30827-6746b0e8f13b5' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=30827&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-30827-6746b0e8f13b5&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-30827-6746b0e8f13b5' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/corporate-govt-innovation/" rel="category tag">Corporate/Gov't Innovation</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/national-security/" rel="category tag">National Security</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/#comments">7 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-30767 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-corporate-govt-innovation category-national-security category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-30767"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" rel="bookmark">The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">April 30, 2024</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The connections between the world of national security and commercial companies still has surprises.</p> <hr /> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>December 1976 – Vandenberg Air Force Base, U.S. military space port</strong> <strong>on the coast of California</strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">As a Titan IIID rocket blasted off, it carried a spacecraft on top that would change everything about how intelligence from space was gathered. Heading to space was the first <em>digital</em> photo reconnaissance satellite. A revolution in spying from space had just begun.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30771" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/kh-11-launch/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?fit=122%2C158&ssl=1" data-orig-size="122,158" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="KH-11 Launch" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?fit=122%2C158&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?fit=122%2C158&ssl=1" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-30771" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?resize=116%2C150&ssl=1" alt="" width="116" height="150" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?resize=116%2C150&ssl=1 116w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/KH-11-Launch.jpg?w=122&ssl=1 122w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 116px) 100vw, 116px" /></a>For the previous 16 years three generations of U.S. photo reconnaissance satellites (257 in total) took pictures of the Soviet Union on <em>film,</em> then sent the film back to earth on reentry vehicles that were recovered in mid-air. After the film was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_processing">developed</a>, intelligence analysts examined it trying to find and understand the Soviet Union’s latest missiles, aircraft, and ships. By the mid-1970s these photo reconnaissance satellites could see objects as small as a few inches from space. By then, the latest U.S. <em>film</em>-based reconnaissance satellite – Hexagon – was the size of a school bus and had six of these reentry vehicles that could send its film back to earth. Though state of the art for its time, the setup had a drawback: Pictures they returned might be days, weeks or even months old. That meant in a crisis – e.g. the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 or the Arab-Israeli war in 1973 – photo reconnaissance satellites could not provide timely warnings and indications, revealing what an adversary was up to right now. The holy grail for overhead imaging from space was to send the pictures to intelligence analysts on the ground in near real time.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">And now, finally after a decade of work by the CIA’s Science and Technology Division, the first digital photo reconnaissance satellite – the KH-11, code-named KENNEN – which could do all that, was heading to orbit. For the first time pictures from space were going to head back to the ground via bits, showing images in near real time.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The KH-11/ KENNEN project was not a better version of existing film satellites, it was an example of disruptive innovation. Today, we take for granted that billions of cell phones have digital cameras, but in the 1970s getting a computer chip to “see” was science fiction. To do so required a series of technology innovations in digital imaging sensors, and the CIA funded years of sensor research at multiple research centers and companies. That allowed them to build the KH-11 sensor (first with a silicon diode array, and then the using first linear CCD arrays), which turned the images seen by the satellites’ powerful telescope into bits.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Getting those bits to the ground no longer required reentry vehicles carrying film, but it did require the launch of a network of relay satellites (code named <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3440/1">QUASAR (aka SDS, Satellite Data System</a>). While the KH-11 was taking pictures over the Soviet Union, the images were passed as bits from satellite to satellite at the speed of light, then downlinked to a ground station in the U.S. New ground stations were built to handle a large, fast stream of digital data. And the photo analysts required new equipment.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">More importantly, like most projects that disrupt the status quo, it required a technical visionary who understood how the pieces would create a radically new system, and a champion with immense credibility in imaging and national security who could save the project each time the incumbents tried to kill it — even convincing the President of the United States to reverse its cancelation.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">More detail in a bit. But let’s fast forward, four months later, to a seemingly unrelated story…</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>April 1977 – Needham, MA, Polaroid Annual Meeting<br /> </strong>Edwin Land, the 67-year-old founder/CEO/chairman and director of research of <a href="https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/polaroid/timeline/">Polaroid</a>, the company that had been shipping instant cameras for 30 years, stood on stage and launched his own holy grail – and his last hurrah – an instant <em>film</em>-based home-movie camera called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkBx4fvY4w">Polavision</a>. At the time, you sent your home movie film out to get developed and you’d be able to view it in days or a week. Land was demoing an instant movie. You filmed a movie and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpH8jIVgxwg">90 seconds later you could see it</a>. It was a technical tour de force – remember this was pre-digital, so the ability to instantly develop and show a movie seemed like magic. Much like the KH-11/KEENAN it also was a complete system – camera, instant film, and player. It truly was the pinnacle of analog engineering.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30776" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/polavision-ad-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?fit=1810%2C1241&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1810,1241" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Polavision ad" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?fit=300%2C206&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?fit=468%2C321&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30776" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=468%2C321&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="321" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?w=1810&ssl=1 1810w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=300%2C206&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=1024%2C702&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=150%2C103&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=768%2C527&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?resize=1536%2C1053&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polavision-ad.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a>But <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkBx4fvY4w">Polavision</a> was a commercial disaster. Potential customers found it uncompelling and its $3,500 price (in today’s dollars) daunting. You could only record up to 2½ minutes of film. And believe it or not, with Polavision you couldn’t record sound with the movies. The 8mm film couldn’t be played back on existing 8mm projectors and could only be viewed on a special player with a 12” projection screen. There was no way to edit the film. It was a closed system. Worse, two years earlier Sony had introduced the first Betamax VCR and JVC had just introduced VHS recorders that could hold hours of video that could be edited. The video recorders looked like a better bet on the future. Polaroid discontinued Polavision two years later in 1979.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">For decades Land’s unerring instincts for instant products delighted customers. However, Polavision was the second misstep for Land. In 1972 at Land’s insistence, Polaroid had prematurely announced the SX-70 camera – another technical tour de force – before it could scale manufacturing. In 1975 the board helped Land “decide” to step down as president and chief operating officer to let other execs handle manufacturing and scale.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">But the biggest threat to Polaroid came in 1976, a year before the Polavision announcement, when Kodak entered Polaroid’s instant camera and film business with competitive products.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30778" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/sx-70-ad-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?fit=927%2C1280&ssl=1" data-orig-size="927,1280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1291306072","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="SX-70 ad" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?fit=217%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?fit=468%2C646&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30778 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?resize=217%2C300&ssl=1" alt="" width="217" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?resize=217%2C300&ssl=1 217w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?resize=742%2C1024&ssl=1 742w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?resize=109%2C150&ssl=1 109w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?resize=768%2C1060&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SX-70-ad.jpg?w=927&ssl=1 927w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">After the Polavision debacle, Land was sidelined by the board, which no longer had faith in his technical and market vision. Land gave up the title of chairman in 1980. He resigned his board seat in 1982, and in 1985, bitter he had been forced out of the company he founded, he sold all his remaining stock, cutting all ties with the company.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Steve Jobs considered Land one of his first heroes, calling him “a national treasure.” (Take a look at part of <a href="https://youtu.be/zbmq9R0dtVg?feature=shared&t=780">a 1970 talk by Land</a> eerily describing something that sounds like an iPhone.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Meanwhile, inside Polaroid Labs, work had begun on two new technologies Land had sponsored: inkjet printing and something called “filmless electronic photography.” Neither project got out the door because the new management was concerned about cannibalizing Polaroid’s film business. Instead they doubled down on selling and refining instant film. Polaroid’s first digital camera wouldn’t hit the market till 1996, by which time the battle had been lost.<strong> </strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>What on earth do these two stories have to do with each other?<br /> </strong>It turns out that the person who had consulted on every one of the film-based photo reconnaissance satellites – Corona, Gambit, and Hexagon – was also the U.S. government’s most esteemed expert on imaging and spy satellites. He was the same person who championed replacing the film-based photo satellites with digital imaging. And was the visionary who pushed the CIA forward on KH-11/KEENAN. By 1977, this person knew more about the <em>application of</em> <em>digital</em> imaging then anyone on the planet.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Who was that?</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It was Edwin Land, the Founder/Chairman of Polaroid – </em>the same guy that introduced the film-based Polavision.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">More in the next installment <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/05/16/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p><strong>Read all the Secret History posts <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></strong></p> <hr /> <p><strong>Read all the Secret History posts <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></strong></p> <iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="91" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1825193580&width=false&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=false&show_comments=false&color=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false"></iframe> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Polaroid%20CEO%20Edwin%20Land&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2024%2F04%2F30%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="ebd217e641" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" data-text="The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2024%2F04%2F30%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FPolavision-ad.jpg&description=The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Polaroid%20CEO%20Edwin%20Land" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-30767-6746b0e903e22' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=30767&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-30767-6746b0e903e22&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-30767-6746b0e903e22' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/corporate-govt-innovation/" rel="category tag">Corporate/Gov't Innovation</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/national-security/" rel="category tag">National Security</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/04/30/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1/#comments">6 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-30190 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-corporate-govt-innovation category-national-security category-navy category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-30190"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" rel="bookmark">The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">December 11, 2023</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>This post is the latest in the “<a href="http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/">Secret History Series</a>.” They’ll make much more sense if you watch the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo">video</a> or read some of the <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><u>earlier posts</u></a> for context. See the <a href="http://steveblank.com/secret-history/">Secret History bibliography</a> for sources and supplemental reading.</p> <hr /> <div id="attachment_2394" style="width: 196px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hp-letter.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2394" data-attachment-id="2394" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2009/06/22/2392/hp-letter/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hp-letter.jpg?fit=2012%2C2210&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2012,2210" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1245094324","copyright":"","focal_length":"56","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":""}" data-image-title="HP Letter" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hp-letter.jpg?fit=273%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hp-letter.jpg?fit=468%2C514&ssl=1" class="wp-image-2394" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hp-letter.jpg?resize=186%2C204&ssl=1" alt="" width="186" height="204" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-2394" class="wp-caption-text">No Knowledge of Computers</p></div> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Silicon Valley emerged from work in World War II led by Stanford professor Fred Terman developing microwave and electronics for Electronic Warfare systems. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, spurred on by Terman, Silicon Valley was selling microwave components and systems to the Defense Department, and the first fledging chip companies (Shockley, Fairchild, National, Rheem, Signetics…) were in their infancy. <em>But there were no computer companies</em>. Silicon Valley wouldn’t have a computer company until 1966 when Hewlett Packard shipped the <a href="https://computerhistory.org/blog/50th-anniversary-of-the-hp-2116-minicomputer/">HP 2116 minicomputer</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Meanwhile the biggest and fastest <em>scientific</em> computer companies were in Minnesota. And by 1966 they had been delivering computers for 16 years.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Minneapolis/St. Paul area companies ERA, Control Data and Cray would dominate the world of scientific computing and be an innovation cluster for computing until the mid-1980s. And then they were gone.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Why?</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Just as Silicon Valley’s roots can be traced to innovation in World War II so can Minneapolis/St. Paul’s. The story starts with a company you probably never heard of – Engineering Research Associates.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>It Started With Code Breaking<br /> </strong>For thousands of years, every nation has tried to keep its diplomatic and military communications secret. They do that by <a href="https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-encryption" target="_blank" rel="noopener">encrypting</a> (protecting the information by using a cipher/code) to scramble the messages. Other nations try to read those messages by attempting to break those codes.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">During the 1930s the U.S. Army and Navy each had their own small code breaking groups. The Navy’s was called CSAW (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OP-20-G" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Communications Supplemental Activity Washington</a>) also known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OP-20-G">OPS-20-G</a>. The Army codebreaking group was the <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/History/Cryptologic-History/Historical-Events/Article-View/Article/2740643/signal-intelligence-service/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Signal Intelligence Service</a> (SIS) at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington_Hall">Arlington Hall</a><u>.</u></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Army focused on decrypting (breaking/decoding) Japan’s diplomatic and Army codes while the Navy worked on breaking Japan’s Naval codes. This was not a harmonious arrangement. The competition between the Army and Navy code breaking groups was so contentious <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jun/29/2002751422/-1/-1/0/ORIGINS_OF_NSA.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that in 1940 they agreed</a> that the Army would decode and translate Japanese diplomatic code on the even days of the month and the Navy would decode and translate the messages on the odd days of the month. This arrangement lasted until Dec. 7, 1941.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">At the start of WWII the Army and Navy code breaking groups each had few hundred people mainly focused on breaking Japanese codes. By the end of WWII, with the U.S. now fighting Germany, and the Soviet Union looming as a potential adversary U.S. code breaking would grow to 20,000 people working on breaking the codes of Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The two groups would merge in 1949 as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency#:~:text=History-,Formation,known%20as%20the%20Cipher%20Bureau." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Armed Forces Security Agency and then become the National Security Agency</a> (NSA) in 1952.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The Rise of the Machines in Cryptography<br /> </strong>Prior to 1932 practically all code breaking by the Army and Navy was done by hand. That year they began using commercial <em>mechanical </em>accounting equipment – the IBM <a href="https://pattonhq.com/ibm.html">keypunch</a>, <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorters.html">card sorters</a>, reproducers and <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/tabulator.html">tabulators</a>. The Army and Navy each had their own approach to automating cryptography. The Navy had a Rapid Analytical Machines project with hopes to build machines to integrate optics, microfilm and electronics into cryptanalytic tools. (<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zpjpvxpJzMMp2BTsxx2PObH7IJopoq-u/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vannevar Bush at MIT was trying to build one for the Navy</a>.) As WWII loomed, the advanced Rapid Machines projects were put on hold, and the Army and Navy used hundreds of specially modified <em>commercial </em>IBM electromechanical systems to decrypt codes.</p> <div> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Read the sidebars for more detailed information</em></p> <blockquote> <div> <div> <h3><b>Electromechanical Cryptologic Systems in WWII</b></h3> </div> </div> <p style="font-weight: 400;">By the spring 1941, the Army built the first special-purpose cryptologic attachment to the IBM punched card equipment – the <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/02/2002755855/-1/-1/0/FAMOUS-FIRST-FACTS.PDF">GeeWhizzer</a> using relays and rotary switches to help break the <a href="http://chris-intel-corner.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-japanese-j-19-fuji-code_1.html">Japanese diplomatic code</a>s. That same year, the Navy received the first in a series of <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/02/2002755855/-1/-1/0/FAMOUS-FIRST-FACTS.PDF">13 electro-mechanical IBM Navy Change Machines</a> to automate decrypting cipher systems used by the Japanese Navy. The Navy attachments were extensive modifications of IBM’s standard <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/sorters.html">card sorters</a>, reproducers and <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/tabulator.html">tabulators</a>. Some could be manually reconfigured via <a href="https://www.glennsmuseum.com/items/ibm_card/">plugboards</a> to do different tasks.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">During the war the Army and Navy built ~75 of these electro-mechanical and optical systems. Some were standalone units the size of a room.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">However, the bulk of the cryptoanalysis was done with IBM punch cards, sorters and tabulators, along with special <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119061601.app3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">microfilm comparators from Eastman Kodak</a>. By the end of the War the Army and Navy had <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_154/41745979078521.pdf">750 IBM machines</a> using several million punch cards every day.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">IBM’s other mechanical contribution to cryptanalysts was the <a href="https://www.cryptomuseum.com/cam/cxco/index.htm">Letterwriter</a>, (codenamed CXCO) a desktop machine that tied together electric typewriters to teletype, automatic tape and card punches, microfilm and eventually to film-processing machines.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30197" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/ibm-letterwritter/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?fit=719%2C361&ssl=1" data-orig-size="719,361" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="IBM Letterwritter" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?fit=300%2C151&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?fit=468%2C235&ssl=1" class="wp-image-30197 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?resize=229%2C115&ssl=1" alt="" width="229" height="115" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?w=719&ssl=1 719w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?resize=300%2C151&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IBM-Letterwritter.jpg?resize=150%2C75&ssl=1 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px" /></a> By adding plug-boards they could automate some analysis steps. Hundreds of these were bought.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Navy’s most advanced cryptographic machine work in WWII was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Computing_Machine_Laboratory">building 125 U.S. versions</a> of the British code breaking machine called the <a href="https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/bombe/">BOMBE</a>. These electromechanical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe">BOMBES</a> were used to crack the ENIGMA, the cipher machine used by the Germans.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30198" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/ncr-bombe/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?fit=681%2C536&ssl=1" data-orig-size="681,536" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="NCR Bombe" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?fit=300%2C236&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?fit=468%2C368&ssl=1" class="wp-image-30198 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?resize=242%2C191&ssl=1" alt="" width="242" height="191" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?w=681&ssl=1 681w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?resize=300%2C236&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NCR-Bombe.jpg?resize=150%2C118&ssl=1 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 242px) 100vw, 242px" /></a>Designed by the Navy’s OPS-20-G team and <a href="http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/bombe_us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">built at National Cash Register</a> (NCR) in Dayton, <a href="https://daytoncodebreakers.org/depth/wenger/">this same Computing Machine Lab would build ~25 other types of electromechanical and optical machines</a>, some the size of a room with <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/150065">3,500 tubes</a>, to assist in breaking Japanese and German codes. By the end of the war the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Computing_Machine_Laboratory">Naval Computing Machine Lab</a> was arguably building the most sophisticated electronic machines in the U.S. However, none of these machines were computers. They had no memory, and both were “‘hard-wired” to perform just one task.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">(Meanwhile in England the British code breaking group in <a href="https://bletchleypark.org.uk/our-story/75-years-since-colossus-arrived-at-bletchley/">Bletchley Park</a> built <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer">Colossus</a>, arguably the first digital computer. At the end of the War the British offered the Navy OPS-20-G code breaking group a Colossus but the Navy turned it down.)</p> </blockquote> </div> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Dual-Use Technology<br /> </strong>As the war was winding down, the leadership of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Computing_Machine_Laboratory">Navy Computing Machine Lab</a> in OPS-20-G was thinking about how they could permanently link commercial, academic and military computing science and innovation to the Navy. After discovering that no commercial company was willing to continue their wartime work of building the specialized hardware for codebreaking, the Navy realized they needed a new company. The decided that the best way to do that was to encourage a private for-profit company to spin out and build advanced crypto-computing systems.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Secretary of the Navy gave his OK and three officers in the Navy’s code breaking group (Commander Howard Engstrom, who had been a math professor at Yale; Lieutenant Commander William “Bill” Norris, an electrical engineer; and their contracting officer Captain Ralph Meader,) agreed to start a civilian company to continue building specialized systems to help break codes. While unique for the time, this public-private partnership was in-line with the wartime experiment of Vannevar Bush’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Scientific_Research_and_Development">OSRD</a> – using civilians in universities to develop military weapons.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Why Minneapolis/St. Paul?<br /> </strong>While it seemed like a good idea and had the Navy’s backing, the founders got turned down for funding by companies, investment bankers and everyone, until they talked to John Parker.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Serendipity came to Minneapolis-St. Paul when the Navy team met <a href="https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107593/oh099jep.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Parker</a>. Parker was a ex Naval Academy graduate and a Minneapolis businessman who owned a glider manufacturing company and was well connected in Washington. Parker agreed to invest. In January 1946, they founded Engineering Research Associates (ERA). Parker became President, and got 50% of the company’s equity for a $20,000 investment (equal to $315K today) and guaranteed a $200,000 line of credit (equal to $3M today). The professional staff owned the other 50%. The new company moved into Parker’s glider hanger. Norris became the VP of Engineering, Engstrom the VP of Research, and Meader VP of Manufacturing.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The company hit the ground running. 41 of the best and brightest ex-Navy technical team members of the Naval Computing Machine Lab in Dayton moved and became the initial technical staff of ERA. When the Navy added their own staff from the Dayton Laboratory the ERA facility was designated a Naval Reserve Base and armed guards were posted at the entrance. The company took on any engineering work that came their way but were kept in business developing new code-breaking machines for the Navy. Most of the machines were custom-built to crack a specific code, and increasingly used a new ERA invention – the magnetic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_memory">drum memory</a> to process and analyze the coded texts.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">ERA’s headcount grew rapidly. Within a year the company had 145 people. A year later, 420. And by 1949, 652 employees and by 1955, <a href="https://www.vipclubmn.org/Articles/1971Paper.pdf">1400</a>. Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5 million ($22 million in today’s dollars).</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">During World War II the demands of war industries caused millions more Americans to move to where most defense plants located. Post-war era Americans were equally mobile, willing to move where the opportunities were. And if you were an engineer who wanted to work on the cutting edge of electronics, and electromechanical systems, ERA in Minneapolis-St. Paul was the place to be. (Applicants were told that ERA was doing electronics work for government and industry. Those who wanted more detail were given a number of cover stories. Many were told that ERA was working on airline seat reservation systems.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>How Did ERA Grow So Quickly?<br /> </strong>The Navy thought of ERA as its “captive corporation.” From the first day <a href="https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107551/oh116wcn.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">ERA started with contracts from the Navy</a> OPS-20-G codebreaking group. ERA built the most advanced electronic systems of the time. Unfortunately for the company they couldn’t tell anyone as their customer was the most secret government agency in the country – the National Security Agency.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">ERAs systems were designed to solve problems defined by their Navy code-breaking customer. They fell into two categories: some projects were designed to automate existing workflows of decoding known ciphers; others were used to discover breaks into new ciphers. And with the start of the Cold War, that meant Soviet cryptosystems. ERAs cryptanalytic devices were most often designed to break only one particular foreign cipher machine (which kept a stream of new contracts coming.) The specific purpose and target of each of these systems with colorful codenames are still classified.</p> <blockquote> <h3 style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30228" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-help-wanted-ad-2-photo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?fit=384%2C392&ssl=1" data-orig-size="384,392" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA help wanted ad 2 photo" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?fit=294%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?fit=384%2C392&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30228" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?resize=156%2C159&ssl=1" alt="" width="156" height="159" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?w=384&ssl=1 384w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?resize=294%2C300&ssl=1 294w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg?resize=147%2C150&ssl=1 147w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 156px) 100vw, 156px" /></a><strong>What Did ERA Build For the National Security Agency (NSA)?</strong></h3> <p style="font-weight: 400;">By the end of ERA’s first year, ERA had contracts for a digital device called Alcatraz which used thousands of vacuum tubes and relays. A contract for a system named O’Malley followed. Then two “exhaustive trial” systems called <a href="https://www.cryptomuseum.com/cam/hecate/index.htm">Hecate</a> for $250,000 ($3.2 million in today’s dollars) and the follow-on system, <a href="https://www.cryptomuseum.com/cam/warlock/index.htm">Warlock </a>($500,000 – $6.4 million today.) Warlock was so large that it was kept at the ERA factory and operated as a remote operations center.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Next were the <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_107/41743419078275.pdf">Robin machines, a photoelectric comparator</a>, used to attack the Soviet Albatross code. The first two were delivered in the end of 1950. Thirteen more were delivered to NSA over the next two years.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>ERA Disk Drives<br /> </em><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the problems code breakers had was the difficulty of being able to store and operate on large sets of data. To do so, cryptanalysts used thousands of punched cards, miles of paper tapes and microfilm. ERA was the pioneer in the development of an early form of disk drives called magnetic drum memories.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30207" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-drum-memory-photos-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?fit=966%2C774&ssl=1" data-orig-size="966,774" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA Drum Memory photos" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?fit=468%2C375&ssl=1" class="wp-image-30207 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?resize=163%2C130&ssl=1" alt="" width="163" height="130" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?w=966&ssl=1 966w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?resize=300%2C240&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?resize=150%2C120&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Drum-Memory-photos.jpg?resize=768%2C615&ssl=1 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 163px) 100vw, 163px" /></a>ERA used these magnetic drums in the special systems they built for NSA and later in their Atlas computers. They also sold them as </span><a style="font-weight: 400;" href="https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/brochures/era.magnetic-storage-systems.ca1958.102646316.pdf">peripherals to other computer companies</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a style="font-weight: 400;" href="http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/goldberg_and_demon.html">Goldberg</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> which followed, was another room-sized special purpose machine – a comparator with statistical capabilities – that took photoelectric sensing and paper tape scanning to new heights. </span><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30211" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-goldberg-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?fit=897%2C585&ssl=1" data-orig-size="897,585" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA Goldberg" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?fit=300%2C196&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?fit=468%2C305&ssl=1" class="wp-image-30211 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?resize=205%2C134&ssl=1" alt="" width="205" height="134" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?resize=300%2C196&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?resize=150%2C98&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?resize=768%2C501&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Goldberg.jpg?w=897&ssl=1 897w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Costing $250,000 ($3.2 million in today’s dollars), it had 7,000 tubes and was one of the first Agency machines to use a magnetic drum to store and handle data.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Another similarly sized system, <a href="http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/goldberg_and_demon.html">Demon</a>, followed. It was a dictionary machine designed to crack a Soviet code. It also used 34-inch-diameter magnetic drum to perform a specialized version of table lookup. Three of these large systems were delivered.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">ERA engineers operated at the same relentless and exhausting pace as they had done in war time – similar to how Silicon Valley silicon and computer companies would operate three decades later.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">For the next decade ERA would continue to deliver a stream of special-purpose code breaking electronic systems and subsystems for the Navy cryptologic community. (These NSA documents give a hint at the number and variety of encryption and decryption equipment at NSA in the early 1950’s: <a href="https://cryptomuseum.com/cam/files/NSA_19520613_CAM.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_107/41743419078275.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here,</a> <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_154/41745979078521.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_106/41743689078291.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/patent-equipment/FOLDER_425/41774259081336.pdf">here</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p style="font-weight: 400;">ERA was undercapitalized and always looking for other products to sell. At the same time ERA was building systems for the NSA they pursued other lines of businesses; <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA952695.pdf">research studies on liquid fueled rockets</a>, <a href="https://vipclubmn.org/couplers.html">aircraft antenna couplers</a> (which turned into a profitable product line,) a Doppler Miss Distance Indicator, <a href="https://crosleyautoclub.com/GasPorter/GasPorter.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ground Support Equipment</a> (GSE) for airlines, and Project Boom to produce instrumentation for what would become underground nuclear tests. A 1950 study for the Office of Naval Research called <a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/era/High_Speed_Computing_Devices_1950.pdf">High-Speed Computing Devices</a> – a survey of all computers then existent in the U.S. As there was no single source of information about what was happening in the rapidly growing computer field, this ERA report became the bible of early U.S. computers.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The Holy Grail – A Digital Computer for Cryptography?<br /> </strong>As complicated as the ERA machines were, they were still single function machines, not general purpose computers. But up until 1946 no one had built a general purpose computer.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">With the war over what the Navy OP-20-G’s and Army SIS computing wizards really wanted was to create a single machine that could perform all the major cryptanalytic functions. The most important of the crypto techniques were based upon either locating repeated patterns, tallying massive numbers of letter patterns, and recognizing plain text, or performing some form of “exhaustive searching.”</p> <blockquote> <h3 style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>How the NSA Got Their First Computers</strong></h3> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Their idea was to put each of these major cryptanalytic functions in separate, dedicated, single-function hardware boxes and connect them through a central switching mechanism. That would allow cryptanalysts to tie them together in any configuration; and hook it all to free-standing input/output mechanisms. With a stock of these specialized boxes the agencies believed they could create any desired cryptanalytic engine.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Just as the consensus for this type of architecture was coalescing, a new idea emerged in 1946 – the concept of a general purpose digital computer with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture">von Neumann architecture</a>. In contrast to having many separate hardwired functions, a general purpose computer would have just the four basic arithmetic ones (add, subtract, multiple and divide) along with a few that allowed movement of data between the input-output components, memory, and a single central processor. In theory, one piece of hardware could be made to imitate any machine through an inexpensive and easily changed set of instructions.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Opponents to the project believed that a von Neumann design would always be too slow because it had only a single processor to do everything. (This debate between dedicated special purpose hardware versus general purpose computers continues to this day.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The tipping point in this debate happened <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3106067/Document-01.pdf">in 1946 when an OPS-20-G engineer went to the Moore School’s 1946 summer course on computers</a>. The Moore School’s computer group had just completed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC">ENIAC</a>, arguably the first programmable digital computer, and they were beginning to sketch the outlines of their own new computer, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_I#:~:text=The%20UNIVAC%20I%20(Universal%20Automatic,the%20inventors%20of%20the%20ENIAC.">UNIVAC</a> the first computer for business applications. The engineer came back to the Navy computing group an advocate for building a general-purpose digital computer for codebreaking having convinced himself that most cryptanalysis could be performed through digital methods. He prepared a report to show that his device would be useful to everyone at OP-20-G. The report remained Top Secret for decades.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The report detailed how a general-purpose machine could have successfully attacked the <a href="https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2019/project/24-Lami-Kallco-Guo-Shi.pdf">Japanese Purple codes</a> as well as German <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine">Enigma</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_(cryptography)">Fish</a> systems, and how it would be usefully against the current Soviet and <a href="https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/hagelin/index.htm">Hagelin</a> systems.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">This changed everything for the NSA. They were now in the computer business.</p> </blockquote> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>ERA’s ATLAS<br /> </em>In 1948 the Navy gave ERA the contract to produce its first digital computer called ATLAS to be used by OPS-20-G for codebreaking.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30209" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-ad-for-engineers-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?fit=1110%2C576&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1110,576" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA Ad for Engineers" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?fit=300%2C156&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?fit=468%2C243&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30209" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers-300x156.jpg?resize=208%2C108&ssl=1" alt="" width="208" height="108" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?resize=300%2C156&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?resize=1024%2C531&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?resize=150%2C78&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?resize=768%2C399&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?w=1110&ssl=1 1110w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Ad-for-Engineers.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Twenty four months later, ERA delivered the first of two 24-bit ATLAS I computers. <a href="https://vipclubmn.org/Documents/Sperry%20UNIVAC%20-%20The%20First%20Computer%20Company%20-%20Chapter%203%20ERA%20by%20George%20Champine%20-%201979.pdf">The Atlas was 45’ wide and 9’ long. It weighed 16,000 pounds</a> and was water cooled. Each ATLAS I cost the NSA $1.3 million ($16 million in today’s dollars).</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In hindsight, the NSA <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crossed the Rubicon</a> when the ATLAS I arrived. Today, an intelligence agency without computers is unimaginable. Its purchase showed incredible foresight and initiated a new era of cryptanalysis at the NSA. It was one of the handful of general purpose, binary computers anywhere. Ten<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KYd_QS4cONmf9YGO39aHJEf-hY8HglCV/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> years later the NSA would have 53 computers</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30215" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-atlas-console-photo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?fit=800%2C640&ssl=1" data-orig-size="800,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="ERA Atlas console photo" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?fit=468%2C374&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30215" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?resize=200%2C160&ssl=1" alt="" width="200" height="160" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?w=800&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?resize=300%2C240&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?resize=150%2C120&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Atlas-console-photo-.png?resize=768%2C614&ssl=1 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a>ERA asked the NSA for permission to offer the computer for commercial sale. The NSA required ERA to <a href="https://vaibhavsagar.com/blog/2019/09/08/popcount/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remove instructions that made the computer efficient for cryptography</a>, and that became the commercial version – the <a href="https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/brochures/era.1101.1951.102646300.pdf">ERA 1101</a> announced in December 1951. It had no operating or programming manual and its input/output facilities was a typewriter, a paper tape reader, and a paper tape punch. At the time, no programming languages existed.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30218" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-1101-photo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?fit=1226%2C828&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1226,828" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA 1101 photo" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?fit=300%2C203&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?fit=468%2C316&ssl=1" class="alignleft wp-image-30218" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?resize=200%2C135&ssl=1" alt="" width="200" height="135" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?resize=1024%2C692&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?resize=300%2C203&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?resize=150%2C101&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?resize=768%2C519&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?w=1226&ssl=1 1226w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1101-photo.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">ERA had delivered a breakthrough computer without having an understanding of its potential application or what a customer might have to do to use the machine. In search of commercial customers, ERA set up a ERA 1101 computer in Washington and offered it to companies as a <a href="https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/brochures/era.computation-center.1950.102646301.pdf">remote computing center</a>. As far as the commercial world knew ERA was a startup with no real computing expertise and this was their first offering. In addition, the only people with experience in writing applications for the 1101 were hidden away at NSA, and ERA was unable to staff the Arlington office to create programs for customers. Finally, ERA’s penchant for extreme secrecy left them unschooled in the art of marketing, sales, and Public Relations. When they couldn’t find any customers they donated the <a href="https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/brochures/era.1101.1951.102646300.pdf">ERA 1101</a> to Georgia Tech.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">With their hands on their first ever general purpose digital computer, the Navy and ERA rapidly learned what needed to be improved. ERA’s follow-on computer, the ATLAS II was a 32-bit system with additional instruction extensions for cryptography. Two were delivered to NSA between 1953 and 1954. ATLAS II cost the NSA $2.3 million ($35 million today.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Late in 1952, a year before the ATLAS II was delivered to the NSA, ERA told <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_Rand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Remington Rand</a> (who now owned the company) the ATLAS II computer existed (and the government had paid for its R&D costs) and it was competitive with the newly announced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_701" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBM 701</a>. When the ATLAS II was delivered to the NSA in 1953 they again asked for permission to sell it commercially (and again had to remove some instructions) which turned the Atlas II into the commercial <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_1103" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ERA/Univac 1103</a>. (see its 1956 reference manual <a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/1103/Univac_Scientific_1103A_Reference_Manual_1956.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30220" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-1103-configuration-photo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?fit=1570%2C962&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1570,962" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA 1103 configuration photo" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?fit=300%2C184&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?fit=468%2C287&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30220" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=200%2C123&ssl=1" alt="" width="200" height="123" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=1024%2C627&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=300%2C184&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=150%2C92&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=768%2C471&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?resize=1536%2C941&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?w=1570&ssl=1 1570w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-1103-configuration-photo.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a>This time with Remington Rand’s experience in sales and marketing, the computer was a commercial success with about twenty 1103s sold.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>ERA’s Bogart<br /> </em><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1953, with the </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">ATLAS </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">computers in hand, the Navy realized that a smaller digital computer could be used for data conversion and editing, and to “clean up” raw data for input to larger computers. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">This was the </span><a style="font-weight: 400;" href="http://www.silogic.com/Athena/Bogart.html">Bogart</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30221" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-bogart-photo/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?fit=1244%2C866&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1244,866" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="ERA Bogart Photo" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?fit=300%2C209&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?fit=468%2C326&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-30221" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?resize=200%2C139&ssl=1" alt="" width="200" height="139" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?resize=1024%2C713&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?resize=300%2C209&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?resize=150%2C104&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?resize=768%2C535&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?w=1244&ssl=1 1244w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ERA-Bogart-Photo.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Physically </span><a style="font-weight: 400;" href="http://www.silogic.com/Athena/Bogart.html">Bogart </a><span style="font-weight: 400;">was a “small, compact” (compared to the ATLAS) computer that weighed 3,000 pounds and covered 20 square feet of floor space. To get a feel of how insanely difficult it was to program a 1950’s computer take a look at the 1957 Bogart programming manual <a href="https://vipclubmn.org/BitsBakUp/BOGART%20Programmers%20Manual%20(July%201957).pdf">here</a>.) The Bogart design team was headed by <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/history-today-articles/10%202018/05OCT2018%20SEYMOUR%20CRAY%20and%20NSA.pdf?ver=P3xsKeHprvcBBChHKi77Gw%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seymour Cray</a>. E</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">RA delivered five Bogart machines to NSA. </span></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Seymour Cray would reuse features of the Bogart logic design when he designed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Tactical_Data_System" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Navy Tactical Data System computers</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/USQ-17" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNIVAC 490</a> and the Control Data Corporation’s <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/october/16/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CDC 1604</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_160_series" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CDC 160</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">By 1953, 40% of the University of Minnesota electrical engineering graduates – including Cray – were working for ERA.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The End of an ERA<br /> </strong>By 1952, the mainframe computer industry was beginning to take shape with office machine and electronics companies such as Remington Rand, Burroughs, National Cash Register, Raytheon, RCA and IBM. Parker, still the CEO, realized that the frantic chase of government contracts was unsustainable. (The relationship with the NSA’s procurement offices now run by Army staff, had become so strained that the Navy Computing Lab was unable to get an official letter of thanks sent to ERA for having developed the ATLAS.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Parker calculated that ERA needed $5 million to $10 million ($75 to $150 million in today’s dollars) to grow and compete with the existing companies in the commercial computing market. Even after the NSA took over the cryptologic work of OPS-20-G the formal contracts with ERA were done through the Navy’s Bureau of Ships. NSA was known as No Such Agency and on paper its relationship with ERA didn’t exist. As far as the public knew, ERA’s products were for “the Navy.” Given that ERA’s extraordinary technical work was unknown to anyone other than the NSA, Parker didn’t think he could raise the money via a public offering (venture capital as we know it didn’t exist.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Instead, in 1952, Parker sold ERA to Remington Rand (best known for producing typewriters) for $1.7M (about $12M in today’s dollars.) A year earlier, Remington Rand had bought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckert%E2%80%93Mauchly_Computer_Corporation">Eckert-Mauchly</a> – one of the first U.S. <em>commercial </em>computer companies – and its line of UNIVAC computers. They wanted ERA to get its government customers. ERA remained a standalone division. The ERA 1101 and 1103 became a part of the UNIVAC product line.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30225" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/era-history-picture-edited/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?fit=455%2C277&ssl=1" data-orig-size="455,277" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="era history picture edited" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?fit=300%2C183&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?fit=455%2C277&ssl=1" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30225" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?resize=455%2C277&ssl=1" alt="" width="455" height="277" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?w=455&ssl=1 455w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?resize=300%2C183&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/era-history-picture-edited.jpg?resize=150%2C91&ssl=1 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Parker became head of sales of the merged computer division. He left in 1956 and years later he became chairman of the Teleregister Corporation, the predecessor to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunker_Ramo">Bunker-Ramo</a>. He went on to become a director of several companies, including Northwest Airlines and Martin Marietta.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Remington Rand itself would be acquired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperry_Corporation">Sperry</a> in 1955 and both ERA and Eckert–Mauchly were folded into a computer division called Sperry-UNIVAC. Much of ERA’s work was dropped, while their drum technology was used in newer UNIVAC machines. In 1986 Sperry merged with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Corporation">Burroughs</a> to form <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unisys">Unisys</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Epilogue<br /> </strong>For the next 60 years the NSA would have the largest collection of commercial computers and computing horsepower in the world. They would continue to supplement those with dedicated special purpose hardware.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The reorganization of American Signals Intelligence, leading to the creation of the <a href="https://cryptologicfoundation.org/community/bytes/this_day_in_history_calendar.html/event/2023/05/20/1684558800/1949-armed-forces-security-agency-created-/96271" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Armed Forces Signals Agency (AFSA)</a> in 1949, then <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-spectrum/early_history_nsa.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the NSA in 1952</a>, contributed to the demise of the special relationship between ERA and the code- breakers. The integration of the Army and Navy brought a shift in who made decisions about computer purchasing. NSA inherited a computer staff from the Army side of technical SIGINT. They had different ties and orientations than the few remaining old Navy hands. As a result, the new core NSA group did not protest when the special group that integrated Agency and ERA work was disbanded. The 1954 termination of the Navy Computing Machine Lab in St. Paul went almost unnoticed.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">But the era of Minnesota’s role as a scientific computing and innovation cluster wasn’t over. In fact, it was just getting started. In 1957 ERA co-founder William Norris, and Sperry-Univac engineers Seymour Cray, Willis Drake, and ERA’s treasurer Arnold Ryden, along with a half dozen others, left Sperry-Univac and teamed up with three investors to form a new Minneapolis-based computer company: Control Data Corporation (CDC). For the next two decades Control Data would build the fastest scientific computers in the world.</p> <p><strong>Read all the Secret History posts <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></strong></p> <hr /> <iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="91" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1720156728&width=false&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=false&show_comments=false&color=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false"></iframe> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Minnesota%20Part%201%3A%20Engineering%20Research%20Associates&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2023%2F12%2F11%2Fthe-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="311b104f34" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" data-text="The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2023%2F12%2F11%2Fthe-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F12%2FERA-help-wanted-ad-2-photo.jpg&description=The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Minnesota%20Part%201%3A%20Engineering%20Research%20Associates" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-30190-6746b0e90f319' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=30190&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-30190-6746b0e90f319&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-30190-6746b0e90f319' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/corporate-govt-innovation/" rel="category tag">Corporate/Gov't Innovation</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/national-security/" rel="category tag">National Security</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/navy/" rel="category tag">Navy</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2023/12/11/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates/#respond">Leave a comment »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-29888 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-corporate-govt-innovation category-national-security category-science-and-industrial-policy category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-29888"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" rel="bookmark">Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">August 29, 2023</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p style="font-weight: 400;">I just saw the movie <a href="https://www.oppenheimermovie.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oppenheimer</a>. A wonderful movie on multiple levels.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">But the Atomic Bomb story that starts at Los Alamos with Oppenheimer and General Grove misses the fact that <em>from mid-1940 to mid-1942 it was Vannevar Bush</em> (and his number 2, James Conant, the president of Harvard) <em>who ran the U.S. atomic bomb program</em> and laid the groundwork that made the Manhattan Project possible.</p> <p>Here’s the story.</p> <hr /> <p style="font-weight: 400;">During World War II, the combatants (Germany, Britain, U.S. Japan, Italy, and the Soviet Union) made strategic decisions about what types of weapons to build (tanks, airplanes, ships, submarines, artillery, rockets), what was the right mix (aircraft carriers, fighter planes, bombers, light/ medium/ heavy tanks, etc.) and how many to build.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">But only one country – the U.S. — succeeded in building nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons during the war, moving from atomic theory and lab experiments to actually deploying nuclear weapons in a remarkable 3 years.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Three reasons unique to the U.S. made this possible:</p> <ol> <li>Émigré and U.S. physicists who feared that the Nazis would have an atomic bomb led to passionate advocacy <em>before </em>the government became involved.</li> <li>A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Advisor_to_the_President" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Presidential Science Advisor</a> who created a <em>civilian</em> organization for building advanced weapons systems, funded and coordinated atomic research, then convinced the president to authorize an atomic bomb program and order the Army build it.</li> <li>The commitment of U.S. industrial capacity and manpower to the atomic bomb program as the No. 1 national priority.</li> </ol> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The Atom Splits<br /> </strong>In December 1938 scientists in Nazi Germany reported a new discovery – that the Uranium atom split (<a href="https://youtu.be/mBdVK4cqiFs?t=38" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fissioned</a>) when it hit with neutrons. Other scientists calculated that splitting the uranium atom released an enormous amount of energy.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29897" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/splitting-atom/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?fit=322%2C241&ssl=1" data-orig-size="322,241" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="splitting atom" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?fit=322%2C241&ssl=1" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-29897" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?resize=150%2C112&ssl=1" alt="" width="150" height="112" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?resize=150%2C112&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/splitting-atom.jpg?w=322&ssl=1 322w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Fear and Einstein<br /> </strong>Once it became clear that in theory a single bomb with enormous destructive potential was possible, it’s hard to understate the existential dread, fear, and outright panic of U.S. and British emigre physicists – many of them Jewish refugees who had fled Germany and occupied Europe. In the 1920s and ‘30s, Germany was the world center of advanced physics and the home of many first-class scientists. After seeing firsthand the terror of Nazi conquest, the U.S. and British understood all too well what an atomic bomb in the hands of the Nazis would mean. They assumed that German scientists had the know-how and capacity to build an atomic bomb. This was so concerning that physicists convinced Albert Einstein in August 1939 <a href="https://www.fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/document007.pdf/3483329d-7b68-442d-953d-eb91e0c5c9b1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to write</a> to President Roosevelt pointing out the potential of an atomic weapon and the risk of the bomb in German hands.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Motivated by fear of a Nazi atomic bomb, for the next two years scientists in the U.S. lobbied, pushed and worked at a frantic speed to get the government engaged, believing they were in a race with Nazi Germany to build a bomb.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">After Einstein’s letter, Roosevelt appointed an Advisory Committee on Uranium. In early 1940 the Committee recommended that the government fund limited research on Uranium isotope separation. It spent $6,000.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Vannevar Bush Takes Over – National Defense Research Committee</strong> <strong>(NRDC)<br /> </strong>European émigré physicists (Einstein, Fermi, Szilard, and Teller) and Ernest Lawrence at Berkeley were frustrated at the pace the Advisory Committee on Uranium was moving. As theorists, they thought it was clear an atomic bomb could be built. They wanted the U.S. government to aggressively fund atomic research, so that the U.S. could build an atomic bomb before the Germans had one.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29899" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/physicists/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?fit=422%2C338&ssl=1" data-orig-size="422,338" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Physicists" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?fit=422%2C338&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-29899 size-thumbnail" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?resize=150%2C120&ssl=1" alt="" width="150" height="120" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?resize=150%2C120&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?resize=300%2C240&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Physicists.jpg?w=422&ssl=1 422w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>They weren’t alone in feeling frustrated about the U.S. approach to advanced weapons, not just atomic bombs.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In June 1940 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vannevar Bush</a>, ex-MIT dean of engineering; and<em> a group of the country’s top </em><em>science</em> <em>and </em><em>research administrators</em><em> (</em>Harvard President <a href="https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/Administrators/james-conant.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Conant</a>, Bell Labs President and head of the National Academy of Sciences <a href="https://ethw.org/Frank_B._Jewett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frank Jewett</a>, and <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/tolman-richard.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard Tolman</a> Caltech Dean) all felt that there was a huge disconnect. The U.S. military had little idea of what science could provide in the event of war, and scientists were wholly in the dark as to what the military needed. As a result, <em>they believed the U.S. was woefully unprepared and ill-equipped for a war driven by technology. </em></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>This group engineered a massive end run around the existing Army and Navy Research and Development labs. Bush and others believed that advanced weapons could be created better and faster if they could be designed by </em><em>civilian scientists and engineers in universities and companies</em>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The scientists drafted a one-page plan for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Research_Committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Defense Research Committee</a> (NDRC). The NDRC would look for new technologies that the military labs weren’t working on (radar, proximity fuses, and anti-submarine warfare. (At first, atomic weapons weren’t even on their list.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">in June 1940 Bush got Roosevelt’s approval for the NDRC. In a masterful bureaucratic sleight of hand the NDRC sat in the newly created Executive Office of the President (EOP), where it got its funding and reported directly to the president. <em>This meant that the NDRC didn’t need legislation or a presidential executive order. More importantly it could operate without congressional or military oversight</em>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Roosevelt’s decision gave the United States an 18-month head start for employing science in the war effort.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The NRDC was divided into five divisions and one committee, each run by a <em>civilian </em>director and each having a number of sections. (see diagram below.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29900" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/ndrc/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?fit=1853%2C799&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1853,799" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="NDRC" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?fit=300%2C129&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?fit=468%2C202&ssl=1" class="wp-image-29900 size-large aligncenter" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=468%2C202&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="202" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=1024%2C442&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=300%2C129&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=150%2C65&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=768%2C331&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?resize=1536%2C662&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?w=1853&ssl=1 1853w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NDRC.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p>Bush became chairman of the NDRC and the first U.S. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Advisor_to_the_President">Presidential Science Advisor</a> <em>systematically</em> applying science to develop advanced weapons. The U.S., alone among all the Axis powers and Allied nations, now had a science advisor who reported directly to the president and had the charter and budget to fund<em> </em>advanced weapon systems <em>research</em> – outside the confines of the Army or Navy.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">NRDC was run by science <em>administrators</em>, who had managed university researchers as well as complex research and applied engineering projects science before. They took input from theorists, experimental physicists, and industrial contractors, and were able to weigh the advice they were receiving. They understood the risks, scale and resources needed to turn blackboard theory to deployed weapons. Equally important, they weren’t afraid to make multiple bets on a promising technology nor were they afraid to kill projects that seemed like dead ends for the war effort.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>200+ contracts<br /> </em>Prior to mid 1940 research in U.S. universities was funded by private foundations or companies. There was no government funding. The NRDC changed that. With a budget of $10,000,000 to fund <em>research</em> proposed by the five section chairmen, the NDRC funded 200+ contracts for research in radar, physics, optics, chemical engineering, and atomic fission.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>For the first time ever, U.S. university researchers were receiving funding from the U.S. government</em>. (It would never stop.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The Uranium Committee<br /> </em>In addition to the five NRDC divisions working on conventional weapons, the NRDC took over the moribund standalone Uranium Committee and made it a scientific advisory board reporting directly to Bush. The goal was to understand whether the theory of an atomic weapon could be turned into a practical weapon. Now the NRDC could directly fund research scientists to investigate ways to separate for U-235 to make a bomb.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What Didn’t Work at the NRDC?<br /> </em>After a year, it was clear to Bush that while the NDRC was funding advanced research, the military wasn’t integrating those inventions into weapons. The NRDC had <em>no authority to build and acquire weapons</em>. Bush decided what he needed was a way to bypass traditional Army and Navy <em>procurement processes</em> and get those advanced weapons built.<strong> </strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Read the sidebars for background.</em></p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29941" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/opp-sidebar-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?fit=1411%2C1844&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1411,1844" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Opp sidebar 1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?fit=230%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?fit=468%2C611&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29941" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=468%2C611&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="611" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=784%2C1024&ssl=1 784w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=230%2C300&ssl=1 230w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=115%2C150&ssl=1 115w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1004&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?resize=1175%2C1536&ssl=1 1175w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?w=1411&ssl=1 1411w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Opp-sidebar-1.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29944" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/opp-sidebar-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?fit=1344%2C739&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1344,739" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="opp sidebar 2" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?fit=300%2C165&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?fit=468%2C257&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29944" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?resize=468%2C257&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="257" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C563&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?resize=300%2C165&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?resize=150%2C82&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?resize=768%2C422&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?w=1344&ssl=1 1344w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-2.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The Office of Scientific Research and Development</strong> <strong>Stands Up<br /> </strong>In May 1941 Bush went back to President Roosevelt, this time with a more audacious request: Turn NRDC into an organization that not only funded research but <em><u>built</u> prototypes of new advanced weapons</em> <em>and had the budget and authority to write contracts to industry to build these weapons at scale</em>. In June 1941 Roosevelt agreed and signed the Executive Order creating the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). (It’s worth reading the Executive Order <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-8807-establishing-the-office-scientific-research-and-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to see the extraordinary authority he gave OSRD.)</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">OSRD expanded the National Defense Research Committee’s (NDRC) original five divisions into 19 weapons divisions, five research committees and a medical portfolio. Each division managed a broad portfolio of projects from research to production, and deployment. Its organization chart is shown below.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29907" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/osrd-23/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?fit=1626%2C1511&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1626,1511" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="OSRD 23" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?fit=300%2C279&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?fit=468%2C435&ssl=1" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-29907" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=468%2C435&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="435" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=1024%2C952&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=300%2C279&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=150%2C139&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=768%2C714&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?resize=1536%2C1427&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?w=1626&ssl=1 1626w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/OSRD-23.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">These divisions spearheaded the development of an impressive array of advanced weapons including <a href="http://www.vectorsite.net/ttwiz_03.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radar</a>, <a href="http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/3672/1/Snyder.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rockets</a>, <a href="http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hua15001" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sonar</a>, the <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq96-1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proximity fuse</a>, <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/napalm.htm">Napalm</a>, the Bazooka and new drugs such as <a href="http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/iht810139.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">penicillin</a> and cures for malaria.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The OSRD was a radical experiment. Instead of the military controlling weapons development Bush was now running an organization where civilian scientists designed and built advanced weapons systems. Nearly 10,000 scientists and engineers received draft deferments to work in these labs.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">As a harbinger of much bigger things, the NRDC uranium committee was enlarged and renamed the S-1 Section on Uranium.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29915" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/applied-physicists/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?fit=652%2C338&ssl=1" data-orig-size="652,338" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Applied physicists" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?fit=300%2C156&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?fit=468%2C243&ssl=1" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-29915" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?resize=300%2C156&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="156" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?resize=300%2C156&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?resize=150%2C78&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Applied-physicists.jpg?w=652&ssl=1 652w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Throughout the next year the pace of atomic research picked up. And Bush’s involvement in launching the U.S. nuclear weapons program would grow larger.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong> </strong>By the middle of 1941 Bush was beginning to believe that building an atomic bomb was possible. But he felt he did not have enough evidence to suggest to the president that the country commit to the massive engineering effort to build the bomb.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Then the MAUD report from the British arrived.</p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;"> <p><strong>The British Nuclear Weapons Program codenamed “Tube Alloys” and the MAUD Report</strong></p> <p>Meanwhile in the UK, British nuclear physicists had not only concluded that building an atomic bomb was feasible, but they had calculated the size of the industrial effort needed.In March 1940 scientists had told UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill that nuclear weapons could be built.</p> <p>In June 1940 the UK formed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAUD_Committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MAUD Committee</a> to study the possibility of developing a nuclear weapon. A year later they had their answer: the July 1941 the MAUD Committee report, “Use of Uranium for a Bomb,” said that it was possible to build a bomb from uranium using gaseous diffusion on a massive scale to produce uranium-235. It kick-started the UK’s own nuclear weapons program called Tube Alloys. (Read the MAUD report <a href="https://fissilematerials.org/library/maud.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.)</p> <p>They delivered their report to Vannevar Bush in July 1941. And it changed everything.</p> </div> </div> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Bush is Convinced by the MAUD Report<br /> </strong>The MAUD Report finally pushed Bush over the edge. The British report showed how it was possible to build an atomic bomb. The fact that the British were independently saying what passionate advocates like Lawrence, Fermi, et al were saying convinced Bush that an atomic bomb program was worth investing in at the scale needed.</p> <div style="background-color: #ededed;"> <div style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 5px;"> <p>For a short period of time in 1941 the UK was ahead of the U.S. in thinking about how to weaponize uranium, but British officials dithered on approaching the U.S. for a full nuclear partnership with the U.S. By mid 1942, when the British realized their industrial capacity was stretched too thin and they couldn’t build the uranium separation plants and Bomb alone during the War, the <a href="https://www.ias.edu/idea-tags/manhattan-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manhattan Project</a> was scaling up and the U.S. had no need for the UK.</p> <p>The UK would play a minor role in the Manhattan project.</p> </div> </div> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Bush Tells Roosevelt – We Can Build an Atomic Bomb<br /> </strong>In October 1941, Bush told the President about the British MAUD report conclusions: the bomb’s uranium core might weigh twenty-five pounds, its explosive power might equal eighteen hundred tons of TNT, but to separate the U-235 they would need to build a massive industrial facility. The President asked Bush to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to figure out what type of plant to build, how to build it and how much would it cost.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">A month later, in November 1941 the U.S. National Academy of Sciences confirmed to Bush that the British MAUD report conclusions were correct.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Bush now had all the pieces lined up to support an all-out effort to develop an atomic bomb.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>December 1941 – Let’s Build an Atomic Bomb<br /> </strong>In December 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, <em>the atomic bomb program was placed under Vannevar Bush</em>. He renamed the Uranium program as the S-1 Committee of OSRD.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In addition to overseeing the 19 Divisions of OSRD, Bush’s new responsibility was to coordinate all the moving parts of the atomic bomb program – the research, the lab experiments, and now the beginning of construction contracts.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">With the Presidents support, Bush <u>reorganized the program to take it from research to a weapons program</u>. The goal now was to find the best ways to produce uranium-235 and Plutonium in large quantities. He appointed Harold Urey at Columbia to lead the gaseous diffusion and centrifuge methods and heavy-water studies. Ernest Lawrence at Berkeley took electromagnetic and plutonium responsibilities, and Arthur Compton at Chicago ran chain reaction and weapons theory programs. This team proposed to begin building pilot plants for all five methods of separating U-235 before they were proven. Bush and Conant agreed and sent the plan to the President, Vice President, and Secretary of War, suggesting the Army Corps of Engineers build these plants.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">With U.S. now at war with Germany and Japan, the race to build the bomb was on.<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29930" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/nrdc-and-osrd/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?fit=1025%2C400&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1025,400" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="NRDC and OSRD" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?fit=300%2C117&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?fit=468%2C183&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29930" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?resize=468%2C183&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="183" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?w=1025&ssl=1 1025w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?resize=300%2C117&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?resize=150%2C59&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?resize=768%2C300&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NRDC-and-OSRD.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">In January 1942, Compton made Oppenheimer responsible for fast neutron research at Berkeley. This very small part of the atomic bomb program is the first time Oppenheimer was formally engaged in atomic bomb work.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Enter the Army<br /> </strong>The Army began attending OSRD S-1 (the Atomic Bomb group) meetings in March 1942. Bush told the President that by the summer of 1942 the Army should be authorized to build full-scale plants.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Build the U-235 Separation and Plutonium Plants<br /> </strong>By May 1942 it was still unclear which U-235 separation method would work and what was the right way to build a nuclear reactor to make Plutonium, so the S-1 committee recommended – <em>build all of them</em>. Build centrifuge, electromagnetic separation, and gaseous diffusion plants as fast as possible; build a heavy water plant for the nuclear reactors as an alternative to graphite; build reactors to produce plutonium; and start planning for large-scale production and select the site(s). The S-1 Committee also recommended the Army be in charge of building the plants.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29946" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/opp-sidebar-z3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?fit=1351%2C1900&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1351,1900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Opp sidebar z3" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?fit=213%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?fit=468%2C658&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29946" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=468%2C658&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="658" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=728%2C1024&ssl=1 728w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=213%2C300&ssl=1 213w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=107%2C150&ssl=1 107w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=768%2C1080&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?resize=1092%2C1536&ssl=1 1092w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?w=1351&ssl=1 1351w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Opp-sidebar-z3.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a>Meanwhile that same month, Oppenheimer was made the “Coordinator of Rapid Rupture.” He headed up a group of theorists working with experimentalists to calculate how many pounds of U-235 and Plutonium were needed for a bomb.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29948" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/opp-sidebar-5/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?fit=1351%2C874&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1351,874" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="opp sidebar 5" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?fit=300%2C194&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?fit=468%2C303&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29948" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?resize=468%2C303&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="303" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?w=1351&ssl=1 1351w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?resize=300%2C194&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?resize=1024%2C662&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?resize=150%2C97&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?resize=768%2C497&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/opp-sidebar-5.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The Manhattan Engineering District – The Atomic Program Moves to the Army<br /> </strong>In June 1942, the president approved Bush’s plan to hand building the bomb over to the Army. The Manhattan Engineering District became the new name for the U.S. atomic bomb program. General Groves was appointed its head in September 1942.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29973" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/opp-sidebar-6/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?fit=1352%2C520&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1352,520" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="opp sidebar 6" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?fit=300%2C115&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?fit=468%2C180&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-29973" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?resize=468%2C180&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="180" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?resize=1024%2C394&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?resize=300%2C115&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?resize=150%2C58&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?resize=768%2C295&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?w=1352&ssl=1 1352w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/opp-sidebar-6.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">To everyone’s surprise Groves selected Oppenheimer to administer the program. It was a surprise because up until then Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist, not an experimentalist nor had he ever run or managed any programs.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Grove and Oppenheimer decided that in addition to the massive production facilities – U-235 in Oak Ridge, TN, and Plutonium in Hanford, WA – they would need a central laboratory to design the bomb itself. <em>This would become Los Alamos</em>. And Oppenheimer would head that lab bringing together a diverse set of theorists, experimental physicists, explosive experts, chemistry, and metallurgists.</p> <div id="attachment_29952" style="width: 879px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29952" data-attachment-id="29952" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/bush-conant-and-grove/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?fit=869%2C619&ssl=1" data-orig-size="869,619" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Bush Conant and Grove" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Bush, Conant and Grove at Plutonium production site at Hanford -July 1945</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?fit=300%2C214&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?fit=468%2C333&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-29952" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?resize=468%2C333&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="333" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?w=869&ssl=1 869w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?resize=300%2C214&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?resize=150%2C107&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg?resize=768%2C547&ssl=1 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-29952" class="wp-caption-text">Bush, Conant and Grove at Plutonium production site at Hanford -July 1945</p></div> <p style="font-weight: 400;">At its peak in mid-1944 130,000 people were working on the Manhattan Project; 5,000 of them worked at Los Alamos.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="29984" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/scale-manhattan/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?fit=3075%2C1961&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3075,1961" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="scale manhattan" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?fit=300%2C191&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?fit=468%2C298&ssl=1" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-29984" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=468%2C298&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="298" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=1024%2C653&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=300%2C191&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=150%2C96&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=768%2C490&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=1536%2C980&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?resize=2048%2C1306&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/scale-manhattan.jpg?w=1404&ssl=1 1404w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Vannevar Bush would be present at the test of the Plutonium weapon at the Trinity test site in July 1945.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The OSRD would be the organization that made the U.S. the leader in 20<sup>th</sup> century research. At the end of World War II, Bush laid out his vision for future U.S. support of research in an article called “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/EndlessFrontier_w.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Science the Endless Frontier</a>.” OSRD was disbanded in 1947, but after a long debate it was resurrected in pieces. Out of it came the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Atomic Energy Commission and ultimately NASA and DARPA – all would all spring from its roots.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">50 years before it happened Bush would describe what would become the internet in a 1945 article called <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As We May Think</a>.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Summary</strong></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>By the time Oppenheimer and Grove took over the Atomic Bomb program, Vannevar Bush had been running it for two years</li> <li>The U.S. atomic bomb program was the sum of multiple small decisions guided by OSRD and a Presidential science advisor – Vannevar Bush</li> <li>Bush’s organizations kick-started the program. The NDRC invested (in 2023 dollars) $10M in nuclear research, OSRD put in another $250M for nuclear experiments</li> <li>The Manhattan project would ultimately cost ~$40 billion to build the two bombs.</li> <li>As the country was in a crisis – decisions were made in days/weeks by small groups with the authority to move with speed and urgency.</li> <li>Large-scale federal funding for science research in U.S. universities started with the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) – more to come in subsequent posts</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p><strong>Read all the Secret History posts <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></strong></p> <hr /> <iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="91" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1604784834&width=false&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=false&show_comments=false&color=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false"></iframe> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Before%20there%20was%20Oppenheimer%20there%20was%20Vannevar%20Bush&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2023%2F08%2F29%2Fbefore-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="9579d5ba26" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" data-text="Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2023%2F08%2F29%2Fbefore-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F09%2FBush-Conant-and-Grove.jpg&description=Before%20there%20was%20Oppenheimer%20there%20was%20Vannevar%20Bush" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-29888-6746b0e91aaed' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=29888&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-29888-6746b0e91aaed&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-29888-6746b0e91aaed' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/corporate-govt-innovation/" rel="category tag">Corporate/Gov't Innovation</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/national-security/" rel="category tag">National Security</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/science-and-industrial-policy/" rel="category tag">Science and Industrial Policy</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2023/08/29/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush/#comments">6 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-13075 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-science-and-industrial-policy category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley category-teaching category-technology" id="post-13075"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" rel="bookmark">The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a The Secret History of Silicon Valley</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">January 14, 2013</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>The U.S. has spent the last 70 years making massive investments in basic and applied research. Government funding of research started in World War II driven by the needs of the military for weapon systems to defeat Germany and Japan. Post WWII the responsibility for investing in research split between agencies focused on weapons development and space exploration (being completely customer-driven) and other agencies charted to fund basic and applied research in science and medicine (being driven by peer-review.)</p> <p>The irony is that while the U.S. government has had a robust national science and technology policy, it lacks a national industrial policy; leaving that to private capital. This approach was successful when U.S. industry was aligned with manufacturing in the U.S., but became much less so in the last decade when the bottom-line drove industries offshore.</p> <p>In lieu of the U.S. government’s role in setting investment policy, venture capital has set the direction for what <em>new</em> industries attract capital.</p> <p>This series of blog posts is my attempt to understand how science and technology policy in the U.S. began, where the money goes and how it has affected innovation and entrepreneurship. In future posts I’ll offer some observations how we might rethink U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy as we face the realities of China and global competition.</p> <p><b>Office of Scientific Research and Development – Scientists Against Time</b><br /> As World War II approached, <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/bush-vannevar.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vannevar Bush</a>, the ex-dean of engineering at MIT, single-handledly reengineered the U.S. governments approach to science and warfare. Bush predicted that World War II would be the first war won or lost on the basis of advanced technology. In a major break from the past, Bush believed that scientists from academia could develop weapons faster and better if scientists were kept out of the military and instead worked in <em>civilian-run</em> weapons labs. There they would be tasked to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scientists-against-James-Phinney-Baxter/dp/0262520125/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">develop military weapons systems and solve military problems</a> to defeat Germany and Japan. (The weapons were then manufactured in volume by <a href="http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/trs/osrdcontractors.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. corporations</a>.)</p> <p>In 1940 Bush proposed this idea to President Roosevelt who agreed and appointed Bush as head, which was first called the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/trs/trsosrd.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Defense Research Committee</a> and then in 1941 the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Scientific_Research_and_Development">Office of Scientific Research and Development</a> (OSRD).</p> <p><a href="http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/227.html#227.1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OSRD</a> divided the wartime work into 19 “divisions”, 5 “committees,” and 2 “panels,” each solving a unique part of the military war effort. These efforts spanned an enormous range of tasks – the development of advanced electronics; radar, <a href="http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/3672/1/Snyder.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rockets</a>, <a href="https://dosits.org/people-and-sound/history-of-underwater-acoustics/world-war-ii-1941-1945/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sonar</a>, new weapons like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze#:~:text=Work%20on%20the%20radio%20shell,innovations%20of%20World%20War%20II." target="_blank" rel="noopener">proximity fuse</a>, <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/napalm.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Napalm</a>, the Bazooka and new drugs such as <a href="http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/iht810139.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">penicillin</a> and cures for malaria.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13079" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/osrd/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd.jpg?fit=1187%2C954&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1187,954" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="OSRD" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd.jpg?fit=300%2C241&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd.jpg?fit=468%2C376&ssl=1" class="alignright size-large wp-image-13079" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd.jpg?resize=468%2C376" alt="OSRD" width="468" height="376" /></a></p> <p>The civilian scientists who headed the lab’s divisions, committees and panels were given wide autonomy to determine how to accomplish their tasks and organize their labs. Nearly 10,000 scientists and engineers received draft deferments to work in these labs.</p> <p>One OSRD project – the <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Med.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manhattan Project</a> which led to the development of the atomic bomb – was so secret and important that it was spun off as a separate program. The University of California managed research and development of the bomb design lab at <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p4s25.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Alamos</a> while the US Army managed the Los Alamos facilities and the overall <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p3s2.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">administration of the project</a>. The material to make the bombs – Plutonium and Uranium 235 – were made by civilian contractors at <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p4s17.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hanford</a> Washington and <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p4s2.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oak Ridge </a>Tennessee.</p> <p>OSRD was essentially a wartime U.S. Department of Research and Development. Its director, Vannever Bush became in all but name the first presidential science advisor. Think of the OSRD as a combination of all of today’s U.S. national research organizations – the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Department of Energy (DOE) and a good part of the Department of Defense (DOD) research organizations – all rolled into one uber wartime research organization.</p> <p>OSRD’s impact on the war effort and the <em>policy for technology</em> was evident by the advanced weapons its labs developed, but its unintended consequence was the impact on American research universities and the U.S. economy that’s still being felt today.</p> <p><b>National Funding of University Research</b><br /> Universities were started with a mission to preserve and disseminate knowledge. By the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, U.S. universities added scientific and engineering research to their mission. However, prior to World War II corporations not universities did most of the research and development in the United States. Private companies spent 68% of U.S. R&D dollars while the U.S. Government spent 20% and universities and colleges accounted just for 9%, with most of this coming via endowments or foundations.</p> <p>Before World War II, the U.S. government provided almost no funding for research inside universities. But with the war, almost overnight, government funding for U.S. universities skyrocketed. From 1941-1945, the OSRD spent $450 million dollars (equivalent to $5.5 billion today) on university research. MIT received $117 million ($1.4 billion in today’s dollars), Caltech $83 million (~$1 billion), Harvard and Columbia ~$30 million ($370 million.) Stanford was near the bottom of the list receiving $500,000 (~$6 million). While this was an enormous sum of money for universities, it’s worth putting in perspective that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/the-costs-of-the-manhattan-project/">~$2 billion was spent on the Manhattan project</a> (equivalent to ~$25 billion today.)<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd-and-universities.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13084" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/osrd-and-universities/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd-and-universities.jpg?fit=943%2C495&ssl=1" data-orig-size="943,495" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="OSRD and Universities" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd-and-universities.jpg?fit=300%2C157&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd-and-universities.jpg?fit=468%2C246&ssl=1" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-13084" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/osrd-and-universities.jpg?resize=300%2C157" alt="OSRD and Universities" width="300" height="157" /></a></p> <p>World War II and OSRD funding <i>permanently </i>changed American research universities. By the time the war was over, almost 75% of government research and development dollars would be spent inside Universities. This tidal wave of research funds provided by the war would:</p> <ul> <li>Establish a permanent role for U.S. government funding of university research, both basic and applied</li> <li>Establish the U.S. government – not industry, foundations or internal funds – as the primary source of University research dollars</li> <li>Establish a role for government funding for military weapons research inside of U.S. universities (See the blog posts on the Secret History of Silicon Valley <a href="http://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, and for a story about one of the University weapons labs <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.)</li> <li>Make U.S. universities a magnet for researchers from around the world</li> <li>Give the U.S. the undisputed lead in a technology and innovation driven economy – until the rise of China.</li> </ul> <p><b>The U.S. Nationalizes Research</b><br /> As the war drew to a close, university scientists wanted the money to continue to flow but also wanted to end the government’s control over the content of research. That was the aim of Vannevar Bush’s 1945 report, <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm"><i>Science: the Endless Frontier</i></a>. Bush’s wartime experience convinced him that the U.S. should have a <em>policy for science. </em>His proposal was to create a single federal agency – the National Research Foundation – responsible for funding basic research in all areas, from medicine to weapons systems. He proposed that civilian scientists would run this agency in an equal partnership with government. The agency would have no laboratories of its own, but would instead contract research to university scientists who would be responsible for all basic and applied science research.</p> <p>But it was not to be. After five years of <a href="http://www.rca.ucsd.edu/speeches/TIS_ResearchUniversitiesCoreoftheUSscienceandtechnologysystem1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post-war political infighting</a> (1945-1950), the U.S. split up the functions of the OSRD. The military hated that civilians were in charge of weapons development. In 1946 responsibility for nuclear weapons went to the new <a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/AEC%20History.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atomic Energy Commission</a> (AEC). In 1947, responsibility for basic weapons systems research went to the Department of Defense (DOD). Medical researchers who had already had a pre-war <a href="http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/history/docs/page_05.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Institutes of Health</a> chafed under the OSRD that lumped their medical research with radar and electronics, and lobbied to be once again associated with the NIH. In 1947 the responsibility for all U.S. biomedical and health research went back to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each of these independent research organizations would support a mix of basic and applied research as well as product development.</p> <p><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13080" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/the-end-of-osrd/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/the-end-of-osrd.jpg?fit=1439%2C868&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1439,868" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="The End of OSRD" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/the-end-of-osrd.jpg?fit=300%2C181&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/the-end-of-osrd.jpg?fit=468%2C282&ssl=1" class="size-large wp-image-13080 aligncenter" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/the-end-of-osrd.jpg?resize=468%2C282" alt="The End of OSRD" width="468" height="282" /></p> <p>Finally in 1950, what was left of Vannevar Bush’s original vision – government support of <i>basic</i> science research in U.S. universities – became the charter of the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/overview-50.jsp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Science Foundation</a> (NSF). (Basic research is science performed to find general physical and natural laws and to push back the frontiers of fundamental understanding. It’s done without thought of specific applications towards processes or products in mind. Applied research is systematic study to gain knowledge or understanding <i>with specific products in mind</i>.)</p> <p>Despite the failure of Bush’s vision of a unified national research organization, government funds for university research would accelerate during the Cold War.</p> <p>Coming in Part 2 – Cold War science and Cold War universities.</p> <h3>Lessons Learned</h3> <ul> <li>Large scale federal funding for U.S. science research started with the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) in 1940</li> <li>Large scale federal funding for American research universities began with OSRD in 1940</li> <li>In exchange for federal science funding, universities became partners in weapons systems research and development</li> </ul> <p>More in the next post, “The Secret Life of Fred Terman” <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 6b of the Secret History of Silicon Valley.</a></p> <p>Listen to the post here:</p> <p>Download the Podcast <a href="http://clearshore.net/page/3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Endless%20Frontier%3A%20U.S.%20Science%20and%20National%20Industrial%20Policy%3A%20Part%206a%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2013%2F01%2F14%2Fthe-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="f41f41d630" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" data-text="The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a The Secret History of Silicon Valley" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2013%2F01%2F14%2Fthe-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fosrd.jpg%3Fw%3D468&description=The%20Endless%20Frontier%3A%20U.S.%20Science%20and%20National%20Industrial%20Policy%3A%20Part%206a%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a The Secret History of Silicon Valley" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-13075-6746b0e920c0a' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=13075&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-13075-6746b0e920c0a&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-13075-6746b0e920c0a' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/science-and-industrial-policy/" rel="category tag">Science and Industrial Policy</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/teaching/" rel="category tag">Teaching</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/technology/" rel="category tag">Technology</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2013/01/14/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1/#comments">13 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-9881 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley category-teaching" id="post-9881"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" rel="bookmark">The Pay-It-Forward Culture</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">September 15, 2011</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. We take it so for granted we never even to bother to talk about it. It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture.</p> <p>——-</p> <p><strong>We’re all in this together – The Chips are Down<br /> </strong>in 1962 Walker’s Wagon Wheel Bar/Restaurant in Mountain View became the lunch hangout for employees at <a href="http://corphist.computerhistory.org/corphist/documents/doc-453551f61dec2.pdf?PHPSESSID=ccd241...">Fairchild Semiconductor</a>.</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" title="The Wagon Wheel Restaurant's Role in Sharing Silicon Valley Technology" width="468" height="351" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1PaTS9KKBWA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>When <a href="http://steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fairchild-silicon-valley-genealogy.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the first spinouts began to leave Fairchild</a>, they discovered that fabricating semiconductors reliably was a black art. At times you’d have the recipe and turn out chips, and the next week something would go wrong, and your fab couldn’t make anything that would work. Engineers in the very small world of silicon and semiconductors would meet at the Wagon Wheel and swap technical problems and solutions with co-workers <em>and competitors.</em></p> <p><strong>We’re all in this together – A Computer in every Home<br /> </strong>In 1975 a local set of hobbyists with the then crazy idea of a computer in every home formed the <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Homebrew_Computer_Club_Sep1976.png">Homebrew Computer Club</a> and met in Menlo Park at the Peninsula School then later at the Stanford AI Lab. The goal of the club was: “<em>Give to help others</em>.” Each meeting would begin with people sharing information, getting advice and discussing the latest innovation (one of which was the first computer from Apple.) The club became the center of the emerging personal computer industry.</p> <p><strong>We’re all in this together – Helping Our Own<br /> </strong>Until the 1980’s Chinese and Indian engineers <a href="http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_699ASR.pdf">ran into a glass ceiling in large technology companies</a> held back by the belief that “they make great engineers but can’t be the CEO.” Looking for a chance to run their own show, many of them left and founded startups. They also set up ethnic-centric networks like TIE (The Indus Entrepreneur) and the Chinese Software Professionals Association where they shared information about how the valley worked as well as job and investment opportunities. Over the next two decades, other groups — Russian, Israeli, etc. — followed with their own networks. (<a href="http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~anno/Papers/terman.html">Anna Lee Saxenian has written extensively about this</a>.)</p> <p><strong>We’re all in this together – Mentoring The Next Generation<br /> </strong>While the idea of groups (chips, computers, ethnics) helping each other grew, something else happened. The first generation of executives who grew up getting help from others began to offer their advice to younger entrepreneurs. These experienced valley CEOs would take time out of their hectic schedule to have coffee or dinner with young entrepreneurs and asking for nothing in return.</p> <p>They were the beginning of the <em>Pay-It-Forward</em> culture, the unspoken Valley culture that believes “I was helped when I started out and now it’s my turn to help others.”</p> <p>By the early 1970’s, even the CEOs of the largest valley companies would take phone calls and meetings with interesting and passionate entrepreneurs. In 1967, when he was 12 years old Steve Jobs called up Bill Hewlett the co-founder of HP.</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" title="Steve Jobs on Failure" width="468" height="351" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zkTf0LmDqKI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>In 1975, when Jobs was a young unknown, wannabe entrepreneur called the Founder/CEO of Intel, Bob Noyce and asked for advice. Noyce liked the kid, and for the next few years, Noyce met with him and coached him as he founded his first company and went through the highs and lows of a startup that caught fire.</p> <div id="attachment_9886" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9886" data-attachment-id="9886" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg?fit=763%2C586&ssl=1" data-orig-size="763,586" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Steve Jobs and Robert Noyce" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Steve Jobs and Robert Noyce</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg?fit=468%2C359&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-9886" title="Steve Jobs and Robert Noyce" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg?resize=300%2C230" alt="" width="300" height="230" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-9886" class="wp-caption-text">Steve Jobs and Robert Noyce</p></div> <p>“<a href="http://januarymagazine.com/features/minmicrochipexc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bob Noyce took me under his wing</a>, I was young, in my twenties. He was in his early fifties. He tried to give me the lay of the land, give me a perspective that I could only partially understand,” Jobs said, “You can’t really understand what is going on now unless you understand what came before.”</p> <p><strong>What Are You Waiting For?<br /> </strong>Last week in Helsinki Finland at a dinner with a roomful of large company CEO’s, one of them asked, ”What can we do to help build an ecosystem that will foster entrepreneurship?” My guess is they were expecting me talk about investing in startups or corporate partnerships. Instead, I told the Noyce/Jobs story and noted that, as a group, they had a body of knowledge that entrepreneurs and business angels would pay anything to learn. The best investment they could make to help a startup culture in Finland would be to share what they know with the next generation. Even more, this culture could be created by a handful of CEO’s and board members who led by example. I suggested they ought to be the ones to do it.</p> <p>We’ll see if they do.</p> <p>——</p> <p>Over the last half a century in Silicon Valley, the short life cycle of startups reinforced the idea that – <em>the long term relationships that lasted was with a network of people</em> – much larger than those in your current company. Today, in spite of the fact that the valley is crawling with IP lawyers, the tradition of helping and sharing continues. The restaurants and locations may have changed, moving from Rickey’s Garden Cafe, Chez Yvonne, Lion and Compass and Hsi-Nan to Bucks, Coupa Café and Café Borrone, but the notion of competitors getting together and helping each other and experienced business execs offering contacts and advice has continued for the last 50 years.</p> <p>It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture.</p> <p><strong>Lessons Learned<br /> </strong></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>Entrepreneurs in successful clusters build support networks outside of existing companies</li> <li>These networks can be around any area of interest (technology, ethnic groups, etc.)</li> <li>These were mutually beneficial – you learned and contributed to help others</li> <li>Over time experienced executives “pay-back” the help they got by mentoring others</li> <li>The <em>Pay-It-Forward</em> culture makes the ecosystem smarter</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Listen to the post here:</p> <p>Download the Podcast <a href="http://clearshore.net/page/6/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Pay-It-Forward%20Culture&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2011%2F09%2F15%2Fthe-pay-it-forward-culture%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="32d2cd2871" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" data-text="The Pay-It-Forward Culture" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2011%2F09%2F15%2Fthe-pay-it-forward-culture%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2Fsteve-jobs-and-robert-noyce.jpg%3Fw%3D300&description=The%20Pay-It-Forward%20Culture" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Pay-It-Forward Culture" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-9881-6746b0e924864' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=9881&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-9881-6746b0e924864&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-9881-6746b0e924864' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a>, <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/teaching/" rel="category tag">Teaching</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2011/09/15/the-pay-it-forward-culture/#comments">43 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-5135 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-5135"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" rel="bookmark">The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 15: Agena – The Secret Space Truck, Ferret’s and Stanford</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">March 8, 2010</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>This post is the latest in the “<a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Secret History Series</a>.” They’ll make much more sense if you read some of the <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/#Secret%20History%20Backstory">earlier ones</a> for context. See the Secret History <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> and <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/secret-history-of-silicon-valley-rev-4-dec-09" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slides</a> as well as the <a href="http://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bibliography</a> for sources and supplemental reading.</p> <p>————</p> <p>By the early 1960’s Lockheed Missiles Division in Sunnyvale was quickly becoming the largest employer in what would be later called Silicon Valley. Along with its publically acknowledged contract to <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/">build the Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile</a> (SLBM,) Lockheed was also <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secretly building the first photo reconnaissance satellites</a> (codenamed CORONA) for the CIA in a factory in East Palo Alto.</p> <p>It was only a matter of time before <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/08/17/stanford-crosses-the-rubicon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stanford’s Applied Electronics Lab</a> research on Electronic and Signals Intelligence and Lockheed’s missiles and spy satellites intersected. Here’s how.</p> <p><strong>Lockheed</strong> <strong>Agena</strong></p> <div id="attachment_5141" style="width: 129px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5141" data-attachment-id="5141" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_1962/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif?fit=358%2C900&ssl=1" data-orig-size="358,900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Thor_Agena_D_with_Corona_58_(Dec._14,_1962)" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Thor/AgenaD w/Corona</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif?fit=119%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif?fit=358%2C900&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-5141" title="Thor_Agena_D_with_Corona_58_(Dec._14,_1962)" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif?resize=119%2C300" alt="" width="119" height="300" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-5141" class="wp-caption-text">Thor/AgenaD w/Corona</p></div> <p><span style="font-weight: normal;">In addition to the CORONA CIA reconnaissance satellites, Lockheed was building another assembly line, this one for the Agena – a space truck. The Agena sat on top of a booster rocket (first the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor-Agena" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thor</a>, then the <a href="https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/atlas_agena.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Altas</a> and finally the <a href="https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/titan-323b_agena-d.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Titan</a>) and had its own rocket engine that would help haul the secret satellites into space. The engine (made by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR81" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bell Aerosystems</a>) used storable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hypergolic</a> propellants so it could be restarted in space to change the satellite’s orbit. Unlike other second stage rockets, once in orbit, the CORONA reconnaissance satellite would stay attached to the Agena which stabilized the satellite, pointed it in the right location, and oriented it in the right direction to send its recovery capsule on its way back to earth.</span></p> <p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM-81_Agena" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agena</a> would be the companion to almost all U.S. intelligence satellites for the next decade. <a href="http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/rm-81.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Three different models</a> were built and for over a decade <em>nearly four hundred</em> of them (at the rate of three a month) would be produced on an <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10457644" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assembly line</a> in Sunnyvale, and tested in <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/documents/foia/declass/WS117L_Records/749.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lockheed’s missile test base</a> in the Santa Cruz mountains.</p> <p><strong>Agena Ferrets – </strong><strong>Program 11/Project 989</strong><br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">As Lockheed engineers gained experience with the Agena and the CORONA photo reconnaissance satellite, they realized that they had room on a rack in the back of the Agena to carry another payload (as well as the extra thrust to lift it into space.) By the summer of 1962, Lockheed proposed a smaller satellite that could be deployed from the rear of the Agena. This <em>sub</em>satellite was called <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1360/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Program 11,</a> or P-11 for short (also called Project 989.) The P-11 subsatellite weighed up to 350lbs, had its own solid rockets to boost it into different orbits, solar arrays for power and was stabilized by either deploying long booms or by spinning 60-80 times a second.</span></p> <div id="attachment_5134" style="width: 192px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-e1268044857660.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5134" data-attachment-id="5134" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/agena/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-e1268044857660.jpg?fit=994%2C1634&ssl=1" data-orig-size="994,1634" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Agena" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Agena Internals</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-e1268044857660.jpg?fit=182%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-e1268044857660.jpg?fit=468%2C769&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-5134" title="Agena" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-e1268044857660.jpg?resize=182%2C300" alt="" width="182" height="300" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-5134" class="wp-caption-text">Agena Internals</p></div> <p>And they had a customer who couldn’t wait to use the space. While the CORONA reconnaissance satellites were designed to take photographs from space, putting a radar receiver on a satellite would enable it to receive, record and locate Soviet radars deep inside the Soviet Union. For the first time, the National Security Agency (working through the <a href="http://www.nro.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Reconnaissance Office</a>) and the U.S. Air Force could locate radars which would threaten our manned bombers as well as those that might be part of an anti-ballistic missile system. Most people thought the idea was crazy. How could you pick up a signal so faint while the satellite was moving so rapidly? Could you sort out one radar signal from all the other noise? There was one way to find out. Build the instruments and have them piggyback on the Agena/CORONA photo reconnaissance satellites.</p> <p>But who could quickly build these satellites to test this idea?</p> <p><strong><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30705" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/lttat-agena-d-card/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?fit=1400%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1400,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="LTTAT-Agena-D-Card" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?fit=300%2C214&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?fit=468%2C334&ssl=1" class="aligncenter wp-image-30705 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?resize=468%2C334&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="334" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?resize=1024%2C731&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?resize=300%2C214&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?resize=150%2C107&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?resize=768%2C549&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?w=1400&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LTTAT-Agena-D-Card.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a>Stanford and Ferrets<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Just across the freeway from Lockheed’s secret CORONA assembly plant in Palo Alto, James de Broekert was at Stanford Applied Electronics Laboratory. This was the Lab founded by Fred Terman from his <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WWII work in Electronic Warfare</a>.</span></strong></p> <p>“This was an exciting opportunity for us,” de Broekert remembered. “Instead of flying at 10,000 or 30,000 feet, we could be up at 100 to 300 miles and have a larger field of view and cover much greater geographical area more rapidly. The challenges were establishing geolocation and intercepting the desired signals from such a great distance. Another challenge was ensuring that the design was adapted to handle the large number of signals that would be intercepted by the satellite. We created a model to determine the probability of intercept on the desired and the interference environment from the other radar signals that might be in the field of view, de Broekert explained.</p> <p>“My function was to develop the system concept and to establish the system parameters. I was the team leader, but the payloads were usually built as a one-man project with one technician and perhaps a second support engineer. Everything we built at Stanford was essentially built with stockroom parts. We built the flight-ready items in the laboratory, and then put them through the shake and shock fall test and temperature cycling…”</p> <div id="attachment_5133" style="width: 478px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-ferret-subsatellites.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5133" data-attachment-id="5133" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/agena-ferret-subsatellites/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-ferret-subsatellites.jpg?fit=1398%2C530&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1398,530" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Agena ferret subsatellites" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Agena and Ferret Subsatellite credit: USAF</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-ferret-subsatellites.jpg?fit=300%2C114&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-ferret-subsatellites.jpg?fit=468%2C177&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-5133" title="Agena ferret subsatellites" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/agena-ferret-subsatellites.jpg?resize=468%2C177" alt="" width="468" height="177" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-5133" class="wp-caption-text">Agena and Ferret Subsatellite credit: USAF</p></div> <p>Like the cover story for the CORONA (which called them Discoverer scientific research satellites,) the first three P-11 satellites were described as “science” missions with results published in the <em>Journal of Geophysical Research</em>.</p> <p>Just fifteen years after Fred Terman had built Electronic Intelligence and Electronic Warfare systems for bombers over Nazi Germany, Electronic Intelligence satellites were being launched in space to spy on the Soviet Union.</p> <p>Close to 50 Ferret subsatellites were launched as secondary payloads aboard Agena photo reconnaissance satellites.</p> <div class="page" title="Page 11"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p><strong>SAMOS/Project 102/698BK/Program 770 – Low Earth Orbit Agena “Heavy” Ferrets<br /> </strong>Lockheeds Agena’s would play another role in overhead reconnaissance – they would carry <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/HISTORICALLY%20SIGNIFICANT%20DOCs/NRO%2060th%20Anniversary%20Docs/SC-2021-00003_C05134315.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Air Force heavy ferrets</a> (Electronic Intelligence payloads) as part of the SAMOS program.</p> <p>In the 1960’s the U.S. Air Force <a href="https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/ASPJ/journals/Volume-29_Issue-2/F-Deaile.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Strategic Air Command</a> (SAC) needed to understand the electronic order of battle inside the Soviet Union so B<a href="https://steveblank.com/2009/03/29/the-story-behind-the-secret-history-part-ii-getting-b-52s-through-the-soviet-air-defense-system/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">-52 bombers could evade or jam those radars</a> on the way to their targets. (Where were the Soviet early warning radars? The ground controlled intercept radars? What are their technical characteristics?) Other parts of the government wanted to know details about Soviet Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems.</p> <div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>SAMOS originally was supposed to provide photo reconnaissance from space by developing film in orbit and electronically scanning it and beaming it to the ground. For the early 1960’s this approach turned out to be a technical bridge too far. (The U.S. wouldn’t beam down photo reconnaissance images until the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_KENNEN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KH-11 satellites</a> in December 1976.) The CIA’s CORONA program, which dropped film canisters from space turned out to be a more efficient way to solve the problem. With CORONA successful, and results from the electronic intelligence sensors on P-11 program providing useful information, the Air Force pivoted from photo reconnaissance to electronic reconnaissance, which had already been a secondary SAMOS payload.</p> <p>32 dedicated Agena heavy ferret missions were launched from the the early 1960’s to the end of the program in 1972.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p><strong>Ferret Entrepreneur<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">After <a href="https://stanfordmag.org/contents/at-the-hands-of-the-radicals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">student riots in April 1969</a> at Stanford shut down the Applied Electronics Laboratory, James de Broekert left Stanford. He was a co-founder of three Silicon Valley military intelligence companies: Argo Systems, Signal Science, and Advent Systems,</span></strong></p> <p>In 2000 the National Reconnaissance Office recognized James de Broekert as a “<a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/news/press/2000/2000-07.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pioneer</a>” for his role in the “establishment of the discipline of <a href="http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/sigint/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national space reconnaissance</a>.”</p> <p>See part 16 “Balloon Wars” of the Secret History of Silicon Valley <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a></p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2015%3A%20%20Agena%20-%20The%20Secret%20Space%20Truck%2C%20Ferret%E2%80%99s%20and%20Stanford&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F03%2F08%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%25e2%2580%2599s-and-stanford%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="cb04ee6741" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" data-text="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 15: Agena - The Secret Space Truck, Ferret’s and Stanford" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F03%2F08%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%25e2%2580%2599s-and-stanford%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F03%2Fthor_agena_d_with_corona_58_dec-_14_19621.gif%3Fw%3D119&description=The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2015%3A%20%20Agena%20-%20The%20Secret%20Space%20Truck%2C%20Ferret%E2%80%99s%20and%20Stanford" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 15: Agena - The Secret Space Truck, Ferret’s and Stanford" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-5135-6746b0e9289b0' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=5135&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-5135-6746b0e9289b0&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-5135-6746b0e9289b0' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford/#comments">6 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-4808 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-4808"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" rel="bookmark">Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">January 28, 2010</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>In 2023 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident#:~:text=From%20January%2028%20to%20February,the%20coast%20of%20South%20Carolina." target="_blank" rel="noopener">China flying a “spy balloon” over the U.S.</a> created an international incident.</p> <p>It turns out the U.S. did the same to the Soviet Union in the 1950’s.</p> <hr /> <p>In the 1950’s the U.S. Military and the CIA enlisted balloons (some as tall as a 40-story building) as weapons systems targeting the Soviet Union. Throughout the decade they launched a series of Top Secret/<a href="https://www.fas.org/irp/nro/review-2008.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">codeword</a> balloon projects and thousands of balloons, to gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. The individual stories of these programs are interesting but an unexpected consequence of their secrecy was that they <a href="http://www.majesticdocuments.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created a mythology</a> that outlasted the missions.</p> <p><strong>Why Balloons?<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In the 1950’s balloons had attributes that airplanes couldn’t match. In the days before satellites they could stay aloft for a long time (days or even weeks,) they could reach altitudes where airplanes couldn’t fly (100,000 feet,) and they could go places that were too dangerous for manned aircraft (flying over the Soviet Union.)</span></strong></p> <p><strong>The Search for Soviet Nuclear Weapons<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Project MOGUL was an Air Force balloon program to <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB7/ae2-1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detect Soviet nuclear tests</a> by listening to sound waves traveling through the upper atmosphere. During World War II, scientists had discovered the existence of an ocean layer that conducted underwater sound for thousands of miles. They thought that a similar <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=vPj0tpXjiWIC&pg=PA44&lpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sound channel might exist in the upper atmosphere</a>. If they could put microphones in the upper atmosphere, the U.S. thought they might be able to hear Soviet nuclear tests and even detect ballistic missiles launches heading toward their targets. Designed to test this theory, Project Mogul balloons carried microphones up to the sound channel to “listen” and radio transmitters to send the sound to the ground. At first, <a href="https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2004/05/22164656/p38.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">project MOGUL flights involved trains of small weather balloons</a> up to 600 feet in length. Later MOGUL flights used the large polyethylene balloons developed for the Navy’s SKYHOOK.</span></strong></p> <p><b>Flying Sandwich Bags – SKYHOOK</b><br /> <a style="font-weight: normal;" href="http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/ws-119l.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SKYHOOK</a> balloons, funded by the Office of Naval Research, were designed to stay at a fixed altitude (~100,000 feet) and carry a payload of thousands of pounds. They were huge, 400 feet high, made possible because the then new material called <a style="font-weight: normal;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121007025634/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Winzen/DI67.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polyethylene</a>. These “flying sandwich bags” were built by a company that had experience using this material in packaging – General Mills the same company that makes <a style="font-weight: normal;" href="https://www.cheerios.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cheerios</a>. (Like many American companies in the Cold War they worked on <a href="https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/biological/generalmills/AD0323599.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other defense problems</a>.)</p> <p><strong>Sniffing for a Reactor – Nuclear Air Sampling – ASHCAN</strong><br /> In 1957 the Air Force started Project ASHCAN (using SKYHOOK class balloons at 100,0000 feet) to take <a href="https://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1957/GFW-19570807.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high altitude air samples</a> and search for nuclear <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~aglaser/talk2008_forensics.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">particles and trace gases</a> in fallout from tests in the Soviet Union. For the first time, U.S. intelligence could estimate the amount of <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB7/ae1-1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plutonium being produced</a> by Soviet weapons production reactors. These balloons were secretly launched from Brazil and the Panama Canal Zone, and from air force bases in the U.S. Over time, U.S. intelligence also used reconnaissance planes like the U-2, RB-57’s, and C-130 aircraft to collect air samples.</p> <div id="attachment_4815" style="width: 478px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4815" data-attachment-id="4815" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg?fit=584%2C739&ssl=1" data-orig-size="584,739" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Genetrix from the Valley Forge" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Genetrix Launched from the U.S.S. Valley Forge</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg?fit=237%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg?fit=468%2C592&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-4815" title="Genetrix from the Valley Forge" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/genetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg?resize=468%2C592" alt="" width="468" height="592" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-4815" class="wp-caption-text">Genetrix Launched from the U.S.S. Valley Forge</p></div> <p><strong>Ballooning Over the Soviet Union – GENETRIX<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">While the nuclear detection balloons did their spying while flying above the U.S. or allied countries, the next series of balloons flew over the Soviet Union.</span></strong></p> <p>In the 1950’s, while U.S. reconnaissance aircraft flew around the periphery of the Soviet Union, U.S. military planners still had virtually no information about what was going on in vast areas of the Soviet territory. While there were a few overflights of the Soviet interior in the early 1950’s these missions were extremely risky and couldn’t provide enough information to assess Soviet military strength. <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spy satellites</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U-2 spy planes</a> were still far in the future so the U.S. military became <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cold-war-balloon-surveillance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">big fans of reconnaissance balloons</a> as a solution to this problem.</p> <p>In 1950 the Air Force thought that high-altitude balloons might be used to perform photo and <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=0HMAtWFW_18C&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q=&f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELINT</a> spyflights over the Soviet Union. They placed aerial reconnaissance cameras on the balloons and ran a series of test programs (code names of GOPHER, MOBY DICK, GRANDSON and GRAYBACK) <a href="http://www.airvectors.net/avbloon_3.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launching 640 balloons</a> from New Mexico, Montana, the West Coast, Missouri and Georgia. With the tests completed, the program name changed to GENETRIX and was given the designation of <a href="http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/ws-119l.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Weapons System 119L</a>.</p> <p>In late 1955 President Eisenhower gave the ok to launch the GENETRIX balloons over the Soviet Union. <em>Hundreds </em>of these balloons took off from secret sites in Norway, Scotland, West Germany, and Turkey carrying a gondola with two reconnaissance cameras.</p> <p>The United States <a href="http://cryptome.org/cia-genetrix/cia-genetrix.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched 516 of the GENETRIX balloons but only 44 or so made it out</a> of the Soviet Union. The rest landed on Soviet farms dumping 600-pound cameras in hayfields. We did get coverage of about 8 percent of the Soviet Union, but politically it created a lot of tension as cameras were popping up on Khrushchev’s desk. “Oh, another balloon Mr. Premier.” The Soviets put on a public exhibition of the equipment.</p> <p><strong>Bigger and Better-</strong> <strong>MELTING POT<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Never one to give up, the military suggested a bigger and better balloon program. Since the GENETRIX balloons flying at 55,000 feet were relatively easy for Soviet fighters to intercept, the new balloons would be built around the Navy SKYHOOK design and fly at 100,000 feet for up to a month. These balloons would carry a new reconnaissance camera, built by the Boston University Physical Research Lab. Three of these balloons were launched in July 1958 from an aircraft carrier off the east coast of Japan (in those months the jet stream at the altitude went west to east.) All three accidentally dropped their gondolas over Communist territory. President Eisenhower cancelled all the balloon overflights.</span></strong></p> <p><strong>Unexpected Consequences – UFO’s in the 1950’s<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">All these balloon flights had an unexpected consequence on a jittery and paranoid nation in the Cold War. Before sunrise and after sunset, while the Earth below was dark, high altitude balloons were still lit by sunlight, and their plastic skin glowed and appeared to change color with the change in sun angle. Some of the Project Mogul balloon flights were launched from Alamogordo Air Base in New Mexico in 1947, and a few crashed nearby – one near a town called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_Incident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roswell</a>. The military cover-up of the secret purpose of the balloon led to conspiracy theories about aliens and UFOs. The start of the Mogul balloon flights coincided with the first reports of UFO’s. To someone on the ground, these balloons may have <a href="http://www.csicop.org/si/show/return_to_roswell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">looked like UFOs</a>.</span></strong></p> <p>Because each of these separate balloon programs were highly compartmentalized programs it’s doubtful that there was any one individual who realized that the sum of the programs were putting <em>thousands</em> of high altitude balloons in the air in the 1950’s. The MOGUL, MOBY DICK, ASHCAN and GENETRIX programs were the CIA/military’s most closely guarded secret projects. Balloon sightings were dismissed with cover story: they were just weather balloons. Even as one part of the military tried to <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/ufos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigate these sightings</a>, the other kept them away from the true purpose of the balloon missions.The reason for the denials – 1) the Soviets could have masked their nuclear tests and filtered their reactor emissions if they knew what we were sampling and 2) GENETRIX balloon flights over the Soviet Union were a violation of international law.</p> <p>The thousands of classified and compartmentalized balloon flights (along with the first flight of the high altitude CIA <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U-2 reconnaissance plane</a> in 1955) are a possible explanation of of UFO sightings in the 1950’s and the claim of military cover-ups.</p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Balloon%20Wars%3A%20Part%2016%20of%20the%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fballoon-wars%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="20557c2817" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" data-text="Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F28%2Fballoon-wars%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2Fgenetrix-from-the-valley-forge.jpg&description=Balloon%20Wars%3A%20Part%2016%20of%20the%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-4808-6746b0e92d8e1' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=4808&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-4808-6746b0e92d8e1&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-4808-6746b0e92d8e1' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars/#comments">10 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-4633 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-4633"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" rel="bookmark">The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 14: Weapons System 117L and Corona</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">January 18, 2010</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>This post is the latest in the “<a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Secret History Series</a>.” They’ll make much more sense if you read some of the <a href="https://steveblank.com/secret-history/?preview_id=62&preview_nonce=099f0979a6&preview=true#Secret%20History%20Backstory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earlier ones</a> for context. See the Secret History <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> and <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/secret-history-of-silicon-valley-rev-4-dec-09" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slides</a> as well as the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://steveblank.com/secret-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bibliography</a></span> for sources and supplemental reading.</p> <p>————</p> <p>The Soviet Union’s detonation of an atomic weapon in 1949 and the start of the Korean War in 1950 fed <a href="http://www.astronautix.com/data/5808nie.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cold war paranoia</a> in the military and political leadership of the United States. The U.S. intelligence community was determined to find out what was going on inside the Soviet Union. But Soviet secrecy <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/08/03/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vii-we-fought-a-war-you-never-heard-of/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had the country </a><a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/08/03/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vii-we-fought-a-war-you-never-heard-of/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">locked</a> down tightly. <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1960-08-19b.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Desperate for intelligence</a>, the CIA would fly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lockheed built U-2</a> spy plane into and over the Soviet Union on 24 missions from 1956-1960 taking <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/st04.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">photos of its military installations</a>.</p> <p>But even <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2014-004-doc01.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as the U-2 was beginning its overflights</a>, the U.S. military had concluded that the future of intelligence over the Soviet Union would no longer be with airplanes, but would rely instead on spy satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above in space.</p> <p>One company in what is today Silicon Valley would build most of them.</p> <p><strong>Weapons</strong> <strong>System 117L<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In 1956 Lockheed Missiles had just won the contract to <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">build the Polaris</a> Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (<a href="http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slbm/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SLBM</a>) for the U.S. Navy in Sunnyvale California, and down in Los Angeles, the U.S. Air Force was on a “<a href="https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0705icbm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crash program</a>” to build land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (<a href="http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ICBM’s</a>) – the Atlas, Titan and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=28936465-1DD8-B71B-0B038D76C2901721" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minuteman</a>.</span></strong></p> <p>In 1954, three years <em>before</em> the U.S. or the Soviet Union ever orbited a single satellite, the Air Force asked the <a href="https://www.rand.org/about/history.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RAND corporation</a> to study what satellites could <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R262z1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">do for the military</a>. Their answer: satellites would enable us to peer over the closed border and inside the Soviet Union. In 1956, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2XY9KXxF8OEC&pg=PA231&dq=western+development#v=onepage&q=western%20development&f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Air Force organization building our ICBMs</a> was assigned to build a family of satellites to spy on the Soviet Union from space. These satellites would be configured to carry out different reconnaissance missions, including photo reconnaissance, infrared missile warning, and Electronic Intelligence.</p> <p>This military spy satellite program was called <em>Weapons System 117L</em>.</p> <p><strong>Spies in Sunnyvale<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In 1956 the Air Force gave <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lockheed Missiles Division</a> in Sunnyvale the contract to build Weapons System 117L.</span></strong></p> <p>Over the next two years Weapons System 117L evolved into a large ambitious program with multiple satellites:<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/files/2010/01/ws-117l.jpg"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="4632" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/ws-117l/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ws-117l.jpg?fit=1384%2C1453&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1384,1453" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="WS-117L" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ws-117l.jpg?fit=286%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ws-117l.jpg?fit=468%2C491&ssl=1" class="alignright wp-image-4632 size-full" title="WS-117L" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ws-117l.jpg?resize=468%2C491&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="491" /></a></p> <ul> <li>The Satellite and Missile Observation System (SAMOS) would take low resolution pictures of the Soviet Union from space and transmit the photos electronically to earth.</li> <li>Another SAMOS version (called <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1355/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ferrets</a>) would collect electronic intelligence on Soviet radars and transmit the location and radar details electronically to earth.</li> <li>The Missile Detection Alarm System (<a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/docs/foia-mda.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MIDAS</a>) would provide early warning of the launch of Soviet missiles heading to the U.S. by looking for the hot exhaust (the infrared plume) of rocket engines and transmit the location of the launch electronically to earth.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Crisis<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In 1957, a year after Lockheed got the contract to start building <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/HISTORICALLY%20SIGNIFICANT%20DOCs/NRO%2060th%20Anniversary%20Docs/SC-2021-00003_C05134315.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WS-117L</a>, the Soviet Union tested an ICBM – one that could carry a nuclear warhead to the United States. They quickly followed with the launch of <a href="http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sputnik</a>, the first earth-orbiting satellite.</span></strong></p> <p>These two events jolted the U.S. intelligence agencies into crisis mode. The Soviet Union claimed they could turn out ICBMs like sausages, and the CIA desperately needed to know how many missiles the Soviets really had and where they were.</p> <p><strong>Not Good Enough<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">The photo reconnaissance satellite designed for Weapons System-117 would have let the U.S. military see objects larger than 100-feet from space. This 100-foot resolution was sufficient for its original mission – to assess how effective the <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/special/doc03c.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first wave of nuclear attacks</a> on the Soviet Union had been. This “post-strike bomb damage assessment” would allow targets that had been missed by the <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/03/29/the-story-behind-the-secret-history-part-ii-getting-b-52s-through-the-soviet-air-defense-system/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nuclear armed SAC bombers</a> to be retargeted for follow-on attacks. Because of the immediacy of the information, it required <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA606620.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real-time electronic read-out of film developed on orbit</a>.</span></strong></p> <p>The problem was that while 100-foot resolution was good enough to locate craters left in cities from space, it wasn’t sufficient for the new mission; to locate the new Soviet ICBM silos and bombers. In addition, the electronic read-out of film developed on orbit was nowhere near ready; it was too complex for its time and technology.</p> <p><strong>The CIA and Corona<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">The CIA convinced the Secretary of Defense that the best bet was to build a separate photo reconnaissance satellite carrying a camera that took pictures from space as it passed over the Soviet Union. Film from the camera would be de-orbited in a capsule that could survive the heat of re-entry from space. A parachute would slow the descent of the capsule, which would be snatched in mid-air over the Pacific Ocean by a recovery plane hooking its parachute. The idea was that this film-based spy satellite would be a short-term project until the Lockheed electronic readout version was in better shape.</span></strong></p> <p>This Project was code-named <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/history/csnr/corona/The%20CORONA%20Story.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Corona</em></a>.</p> <p><strong>The Flamingo Motel<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In March 1958 a few unassuming guests checked into the Flamingo Motel in San Mateo, California, near the San Francisco airport. The CIA, and their primary contractors Lockheed, Kodak, Fairchild and GE, met to hash out their roles and the schedule. The CIA was the customer. Lockheed would integrate and assemble the satellites, Itek (which replaced Fairchild) would provide the camera, Kodak the film, and GE would provide the recovery system that would bring the exposed film through the fiery re-entry back to earth.</span></strong></p> <p>After the meeting, the Lockheed manager for Corona rented his own hotel room in Rickey’s Hyatt House in Palo Alto to start to plan the program. He needed to find a factory, separate from the already secret Polaris factory in Sunnyvale. He found an unused facility at the Hiller Helicopter factory <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Over_Time/NXJQzuwUNSYC?q=&gbpv=1#f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Willow Road in East Palo Alto</a> which became the Lockheed “Advanced Projects” facility.</p> <div id="v-QDMTQi8M-1" class="video-player"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='468' height='264' src='https://videopress.com/embed/QDMTQi8M?hd=1&cover=1&loop=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=1&muted=0&controls=1&playsinline=0&useAverageColor=0&preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent="true" allow='clipboard-write'></iframe><script src='https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/plugins/video/assets/js/next/videopress-iframe.js'></script></div> <p><strong>Deception<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">To hide the fact that we were launching high-resolution photo reconnaissance satellites over the Soviet Union, the CIA had the Air Force publically cancelled the SAMOS photo reconnaissance portion of WS-117L. The program then was resurrected as a “deep black” “<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB225/doc05c.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compartmentalized”</a> CIA program. When the Corona satellites were launched the CIA used a “cover” story. They called the Corona satellites the “Discoverer” program and claimed it was an experimental program to develop and test satellite subsystems and explore environmental conditions in space. The film recovery capsule was described as a “biomedical capsule” for the recovery of biological specimens sent into space as an early test of how humans would react to manned spaceflight.</span></strong></p> <div id="v-PaZ06V7K-1" class="video-player"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='468' height='350' src='https://videopress.com/embed/PaZ06V7K?hd=1&cover=1&loop=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=1&muted=0&controls=1&playsinline=0&useAverageColor=0&preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent="true" allow='clipboard-write'></iframe><script src='https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/plugins/video/assets/js/next/videopress-iframe.js'></script></div> <p><strong>East Palo Alto – Lockheed’s Satellite Factory<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">The Corona project was <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/aeronautics/skunkworks/14rules.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">run like a startup</a> – a small team, minimum bureaucracy, focussed on a goal and tightly integrated with customer needs. Starting in February 1959, <em>only 12 months after the program began</em> the Air Force launched the first Corona reconnaissance satellite from the military’s secret spaceport on the California coast at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_Space_Force_Base" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vandenberg Air Force Base</a>. But the first 13 missions were failures. Yet the program was deemed so important to national security the CIA and the Air Force persevered. And when the first images were received they transformed technical intelligence forever. At first, objects as small as 20-35 feet could be seen from space, with later versions improving to be able to see 6 foot objects, over millions of miles of a formally closed country.</span></strong></p> <div id="attachment_4717" style="width: 831px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4717" data-attachment-id="4717" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/stepnagorsk_corona_composite/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg?fit=821%2C1011&ssl=1" data-orig-size="821,1011" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="Stepnagorsk_Corona_Composite" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Corona Image of Stepnogorsk Bioweapons Facility</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg?fit=244%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg?fit=468%2C576&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-4717" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg?resize=468%2C576&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="576" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-4717" class="wp-caption-text">Corona Image of Stepnogorsk Bioweapons Facility</p></div> <p>Over the life of the program there were 145 Corona launches – 120 were complete or partial successes. During that same decade the Corona program evolved into six different satellite models (the KH-1 thru KH-6) with three different intelligence objectives.</p> <p>Lockheed turned the Hiller Helicopter plant in East Palo Alto into the <a href="http://www.losangeles.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-060912-026.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">control facility for all spy satellites</a> and the Corona spy satellite assembly line – building about one a month and delivering ~145 Corona satellites over the life of the program.</p> <p><strong>Stanford, Jasons, WS-117L and Corona</strong><br /> In addition to Lockheed, Stanford University also had a hand in Corona. <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/sidney-drell-obituary-214575/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sidney Drell</a>, then a professor in the Stanford Physics department, was one of the dozen of young scientists who were founding members of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jasons-Secret-History-Sciences-Postwar/dp/0670034894" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Group</a> (scientists working on <a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national security problems</a>.) His first project was understanding whether a Soviet nuclear burst in space could <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ehNSmE0AJgAC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=drell+midas+nuclear+burst&source=bl&ots=3tdJIjzNsn&sig=U3iA0VEyAHv_ORVGmlN9WxZTPWY&hl=en&ei=RilOS6_QJIGCsgOg9dzMBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blind the infrared sensors on the Midas</a> portion of WS-117L. This research got him invited to be part of the President’s Scientific Advisory Council (<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB36/01-01.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PSAC</a>). But it was when the CIA asked him to solve some technical problems with the film on the Corona spacecraft that his career became intertwined with photo reconnaissance. His studies convinced the CIA that photo interpreters needed an order of magnitude improvement in resolution, and Corona had been pushed to its limits. In the late 1960’s Drell, as a member of the <a href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3795/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Land Panel</a> convinced the CIA that the <a href="http://rmp.aps.org/pdf/RMP/v71/i2/pS460_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">next generation</a> of photo reconnaissance satellites should transmit their images back to earth in real-time, and <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/kh-11.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">use CCD’s</a> rather than film.</p> <p>For his work, Drell, still at Stanford, was recognized as one of the ten <a href="https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/history/csnr/leaders/Founders_of_Natl_Reconnaissance.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founders of National Reconnaissance</a> by the <a href="http://www.nro.gov/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NRO</a>.</p> <p><strong>Corona Firsts<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">While Corona had a number of technological breakthroughs, including the first photoreconnaissance satellite, the first recovery of an object from space, etc. it was Corona imagery in 1961 that told the intelligence community and the new Kennedy administration that the “missile gap” (the supposed Soviet lead in ICBMs) was illusory. By fall of 1961 Soviet Union had a total of six deployed ICBMs – we had <a href="http://themilitarystandard.com/missile/atlas/timeline.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ten times as many</a>. In truth, it was the U.S. that had the lead in missiles.</span></strong></p> <p>Corona was just the beginning. Overhead reconnaissance would become an integral part of the U.S. intelligence community. Hidden in plain sight, Lockheed and the U.S. intelligence community were just getting started in Silicon Valley.</p> <p>Next – Agena, Midas, Ferrets and the NRO in <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/03/08/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret’s-and-stanford/">Part XV of the Secret History of Silicon Valley</a>.</p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2014%3A%20Weapons%20System%20117L%20and%20Corona&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="c9c532475e" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" data-text="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 14: Weapons System 117L and Corona" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2Fstepnagorsk_corona_composite.jpg&description=The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2014%3A%20Weapons%20System%20117L%20and%20Corona" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 14: Weapons System 117L and Corona" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-4633-6746b0e938b5a' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=4633&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-4633-6746b0e938b5a&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-4633-6746b0e938b5a' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/#comments">3 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-4564 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-secret-history-of-silicon-valley" id="post-4564"> <h2><a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" rel="bookmark">The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 13: Lockheed-the Startup with Nuclear Missiles</a></h2> <div class="postinfo"> Posted on <span class="postdate">January 7, 2010</span> by steve blank </div> <div class="entry"> <p>This post is the latest in the “<a href="http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/">Secret History Series</a>.” They’ll make much more sense if you read some of the <a href="http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/">earlier ones</a> for context. See the <a href="http://steveblank.com/secret-history/">Secret History bibliography</a> for sources and supplemental reading.</p> <p>———————–</p> <p><strong>The Future is Clear – Microwave Valley Forever<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In 1956 Hewlett Packard, back then a maker of test equipment was the valley’s largest electronics employer with 900 employees. But startups were rapidly spinning out of <a href="http://steveblank.com/2009/08/17/stanford-crosses-the-rubicon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stanford’s Applied Electronics Lab</a> delivering microwave tubes, components and complete electronic intelligence and electronic warfare systems for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The future of the valley was clear – <em>microwaves</em>.</span></strong></p> <p><strong>1956 – Change Everything<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">In 1956 two events would change everything. At the time neither appeared earthshaking or momentous. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory">Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory</a>, the first semiconductor company in the valley, set up shop in Mountain View. And down the street, Lockheed Missiles Systems Division which would become the valley’s most important startup for the next 20 years, moves its new missile division from Burbank to 275 acres next to the Moffett Naval Air Station in Sunnyvale. (Lockheed’s 8 million-square-foot Sunnyvale complex, was the largest corporate real estate complex in Silicon Valley until the 1990s.)<a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30475" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/poseidon-launch/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?fit=680%2C847&ssl=1" data-orig-size="680,847" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Poseidon launch" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?fit=241%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?fit=468%2C583&ssl=1" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-30475" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?resize=468%2C583&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="583" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?w=680&ssl=1 680w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?resize=241%2C300&ssl=1 241w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Poseidon-launch.jpg?resize=120%2C150&ssl=1 120w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></span></strong></p> <p><strong>Lockheed – </strong><strong>Building Nuclear Missiles in Sunnyvale<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Lockheed, an airplane manufacturer, was getting into the missile business by becoming the prime contractor to build the <a href="http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-27.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polaris</a>, a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) developed by the Navy. The Polaris was unique: it would be the first solid-fuel ballistic missile used by the U.S. Solid fuel solved the safety problem of carrying missiles at sea and underwater and also allowed for instant launch capability. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlxS4nTORKs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polaris launched SLBM’s</a> would become the third part of <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/Americas-Nuclear-Triad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the nuclear triad</a> the U.S. built in the cold war – <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2006/june/polaris-true-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Polaris</a>, the B-52 manned bomber, and the Minuteman, and Titan land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs.)</span></strong></p> <p>Each Polaris missile carried a <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/w47.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">600 kT nuclear warhead</a>, (later Polaris versions carried three) and each ballistic missile submarine carried 16 of these missiles. 10 years after the program started the United States had built and put to sea 41 ballistic missile submarines carrying 656 Lockheed missiles (28.5 ft high, and weighing 29,000 lbs.) The company acquired a 5,000 acre <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVLHC-OiU6WnF_j31lZ0RQcs-Pjt171Q/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">missile test facility near Santa Cruz</a>, and for years would test it’s missiles in the mountains above the valley.</p> <p>Between 1960 and 1971, <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/cold-war/strategic-deterrence/fleet-ballistic-missiles-submarines.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lockheed built three versions of the Polaris missile</a>: with each successive version increasing its range and accuracy.</p> <p>One can assume that with spares, Lockheed built close to 750 of Polaris missiles in those ten years. That’s ~75 missiles a year, 6/month flying out of Moffett Field.</p> <p>In 1971, Lockheed built a longer range version of the Polaris—called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-73_Poseidon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Poseidon</a> by enlarging it to the maximum size to fit into the existing submarine launch tubes. In 1990, Lockheed delivered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-133_Trident_II" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trident</a> – the current generation of submarine launched ballistic missiles.</p> <p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="30470" data-permalink="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/polaris-generations/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1200,845" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Polaris generations" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?fit=300%2C211&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?fit=468%2C330&ssl=1" class="size-large wp-image-30470 aligncenter" src="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?resize=468%2C330&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="330" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?resize=1024%2C721&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?resize=300%2C211&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?resize=150%2C106&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?resize=768%2C541&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/steveblank.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Polaris-generations.jpg?w=936&ssl=1 936w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p><strong>You Can Be Sure</strong><strong> if It’s Westinghouse<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Polaris submarines carried each missile in a separate launch tube. Down the street from Lockheed in Sunnyvale, another American corporate icon, <a href="https://www.asme.org/wwwasmeorg/media/resourcefiles/aboutasme/who%20we%20are/engineering%20history/landmarks/34-joshua-hendy-iron-works.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Westinghouse</a> became the developer of the launch tube for the Polaris missile. To launch missiles from a submarine under water, Westinghouse had to solve several problems. The launch tube had to keep the missile snug in its tube until firing. It had to eject the missile with sufficient velocity so it would head to the surface from a 100’ feet under water, and it had to protect the submarine when ocean water came rushing in to the now empty launch tube. Oil-filled shock absorbers solved the cushioning problem and compressed air launched the missile out of the tube through a thin diaphragm that separated the missile from the ocean once the missile launch covers were opened.</span></strong></p> <p><strong>Zero to 28,000 people – We Become “Defense Valley”<br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;">By 1965 Hewlett Packard, the test and instrumentation company, had grown ten-fold. From 900 people in 1956 it now employed 9,000. Clearly it must have been the dominant company in the valley? Or perhaps it was Fairchild, the direct descendant of Shockley Semiconductor, now the dominant semiconductor supplier in the valley (80% of its first years business <a href="http://corphist.computerhistory.org/corphist/view.php?s=events&id=2550" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coming from military </a>systems) with ~10,000 people?</span></strong></p> <p>Nope, it was the Lockheed Missiles Division, which had zero employees in 1956, now in 1965 <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> had 28,000 employees</span></em><em> in Sunnyvale</em>. The best and the brightest were coming from across the country to the valley south of San Francisco.</p> <p>And they were not only building Polaris missiles.</p> <p>By 1965 Lockheed factories in Sunnyvale, Stanford and East Palo Alto <em>were building the most secret spy satellites and rockets you never heard of. </em>While the 1950’s had made us “Microwave Valley,” the growth of Lockheed, Westinghouse and their suppliers had turned us into “Defense Valley.”</p> <p>In the next post; Spy Satellites in East Palo Alto and Stanford – Corona, WS-117, Samos, Ferret’s and Agena in <a href="http://steveblank.com/2010/01/18/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona/">Part XIV of the Secret History of Silicon Valley</a>.</p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-print"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-print sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" target="_blank" title="Click to print" ><span>Print</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2013%3A%20Lockheed-the%20Startup%20with%20Nuclear%20Missiles&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F07%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="859b5492da" data-email-share-track-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" data-text="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 13: Lockheed-the Startup with Nuclear Missiles" >Tweet</a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><div class="linkedin_button"><script type="in/share" data-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" data-counter="right"></script></div></li><li class="share-reddit"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-reddit sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/?share=reddit" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Reddit" ><span>Reddit</span></a></li><li class="share-jetpack-whatsapp"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-jetpack-whatsapp sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/?share=jetpack-whatsapp" target="_blank" title="Click to share on WhatsApp" ><span>WhatsApp</span></a></li><li class="share-pinterest"><div class="pinterest_button"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2010%2F01%2F07%2Fthe-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F01%2FPoseidon-launch.jpg&description=The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Silicon%20Valley%20Part%2013%3A%20Lockheed-the%20Startup%20with%20Nuclear%20Missiles" data-pin-do="buttonPin" data-pin-config="beside"><img data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i0.wp.com/assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png?w=468" /></a></div></li><li class="share-telegram"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram" ><span>Telegram</span></a></li><li class="share-tumblr"><a class="tumblr-share-button" target="_blank" href="https://www.tumblr.com/share" data-title="The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 13: Lockheed-the Startup with Nuclear Missiles" data-content="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" title="Share on Tumblr"data-posttype="link">Share on Tumblr</a></li><li class="share-pocket"><div class="pocket_button"><a href="https://getpocket.com/save" class="pocket-btn" data-lang="en" data-save-url="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/" data-pocket-count="horizontal" >Pocket</a></div></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-6599589-4564-6746b0e93c9cb' data-src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1-a.7#blog_id=6599589&post_id=4564&origin=steveblank.com&obj_id=6599589-4564-6746b0e93c9cb&n=1' data-name='like-post-frame-6599589-4564-6746b0e93c9cb' data-title='Like or Reblog'><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div> <p class="postinfo"> Filed under: <a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/" rel="category tag">Secret History of Silicon Valley</a> | <a href="https://steveblank.com/2010/01/07/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles/#comments">7 Comments »</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="browse"><a href="https://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/page/2/" >Next Page »</a></div> </div> </div></div> <div class="sidebar"> <ul> <li><h2>Calendar</h2> <ul> <li><table id="wp-calendar" class="wp-calendar-table"> <caption>November 2024</caption> <thead> <tr> <th scope="col" title="Monday">M</th> <th scope="col" title="Tuesday">T</th> <th scope="col" title="Wednesday">W</th> <th scope="col" title="Thursday">T</th> <th scope="col" title="Friday">F</th> <th scope="col" title="Saturday">S</th> <th scope="col" title="Sunday">S</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="4" class="pad"> </td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>8</td><td>9</td><td>10</td> </tr> <tr> <td>11</td><td>12</td><td>13</td><td>14</td><td>15</td><td>16</td><td>17</td> </tr> <tr> <td>18</td><td>19</td><td>20</td><td>21</td><td>22</td><td>23</td><td>24</td> </tr> <tr> <td>25</td><td id="today">26</td><td>27</td><td>28</td><td>29</td><td>30</td> <td class="pad" colspan="1"> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><nav aria-label="Previous and next months" class="wp-calendar-nav"> <span class="wp-calendar-nav-prev"><a href="https://steveblank.com/2024/10/">« Oct</a></span> <span class="pad"> </span> <span class="wp-calendar-nav-next"> </span> </nav></li> </ul> </li> <li id="linkcat-697967627" class="linkcat"><h2>Customer Development</h2> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sblank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Customer Development Methodology – slides</a></li> <li><a href="http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/search?q=%22customer+development%22" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Eric Ries on Customer Development</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/0976470705" rel="noopener" title="My book about Customer Development and more" target="_blank">Four Steps to the Epiphany – the book</a></li> <li><a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2048" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Stanford Entrepreneurial Leadership Talks by Steve Blank</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/lean-startup-presentation-to-maples-investments-by-steve-blank-and-eric-ries-presentation" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Lean Startup by Eric Ries & Steve Blank – slides</a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="linkcat-697967628" class="linkcat"><h2>Secret History of Silicon Valley</h2> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/secret-history-of-silicon-valley-rev-4-dec-09" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Secret History of Silicon Valley – Dec 2009 slides</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo" rel="noopener" title="Recorded at the Computer History Museum Nov. 20, 2008" target="_blank">The Secret History of Silicon Valley – video</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> <p><a href="https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_custom_powered">Powered by WordPress.com</a>. WP Designer.</p> </div> </div> </div>  <script defer id="bilmur" data-customproperties="{"woo_active":"0"}" data-provider="wordpress.com" data-service="atomic" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/js/bilmur.min.js?m=202448"></script> <div id="jp-carousel-loading-overlay"> <div id="jp-carousel-loading-wrapper"> <span id="jp-carousel-library-loading"> </span> </div> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-overlay" style="display: none;"> <div class="jp-carousel-container">  <div class="jp-carousel-wrap swiper-container jp-carousel-swiper-container jp-carousel-transitions" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageGallery"> <div class="jp-carousel swiper-wrapper"></div> <div class="jp-swiper-button-prev swiper-button-prev"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="maskPrev" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="8" y="6" width="9" height="12"> <path d="M16.2072 16.59L11.6496 12L16.2072 7.41L14.8041 6L8.8335 12L14.8041 18L16.2072 16.59Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#maskPrev)"> <rect x="0.579102" width="23.8823" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> </div> <div class="jp-swiper-button-next swiper-button-next"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="maskNext" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="8" y="6" width="8" height="12"> <path d="M8.59814 16.59L13.1557 12L8.59814 7.41L10.0012 6L15.9718 12L10.0012 18L8.59814 16.59Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#maskNext)"> <rect x="0.34375" width="23.8822" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> </div> </div>  <div class="jp-carousel-close-hint"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="maskClose" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="5" y="5" width="15" height="14"> <path d="M19.3166 6.41L17.9135 5L12.3509 10.59L6.78834 5L5.38525 6.41L10.9478 12L5.38525 17.59L6.78834 19L12.3509 13.41L17.9135 19L19.3166 17.59L13.754 12L19.3166 6.41Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#maskClose)"> <rect x="0.409668" width="23.8823" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> </div>  <div class="jp-carousel-info"> <div class="jp-carousel-info-footer"> <div class="jp-carousel-pagination-container"> <div class="jp-swiper-pagination swiper-pagination"></div> <div class="jp-carousel-pagination"></div> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-photo-title-container"> <h2 class="jp-carousel-photo-caption"></h2> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-photo-icons-container"> <a href="#" class="jp-carousel-icon-btn jp-carousel-icon-info" aria-label="Toggle photo metadata visibility"> <span class="jp-carousel-icon"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="maskInfo" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="2" y="2" width="21" height="20"> <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M12.7537 2C7.26076 2 2.80273 6.48 2.80273 12C2.80273 17.52 7.26076 22 12.7537 22C18.2466 22 22.7046 17.52 22.7046 12C22.7046 6.48 18.2466 2 12.7537 2ZM11.7586 7V9H13.7488V7H11.7586ZM11.7586 11V17H13.7488V11H11.7586ZM4.79292 12C4.79292 16.41 8.36531 20 12.7537 20C17.142 20 20.7144 16.41 20.7144 12C20.7144 7.59 17.142 4 12.7537 4C8.36531 4 4.79292 7.59 4.79292 12Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#maskInfo)"> <rect x="0.8125" width="23.8823" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> </span> </a> <a href="#" class="jp-carousel-icon-btn jp-carousel-icon-comments" aria-label="Toggle photo comments visibility"> <span class="jp-carousel-icon"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="maskComments" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="2" y="2" width="21" height="20"> <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M4.3271 2H20.2486C21.3432 2 22.2388 2.9 22.2388 4V16C22.2388 17.1 21.3432 18 20.2486 18H6.31729L2.33691 22V4C2.33691 2.9 3.2325 2 4.3271 2ZM6.31729 16H20.2486V4H4.3271V18L6.31729 16Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#maskComments)"> <rect x="0.34668" width="23.8823" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> <span class="jp-carousel-has-comments-indicator" aria-label="This image has comments."></span> </span> </a> </div> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-info-extra"> <div class="jp-carousel-info-content-wrapper"> <div class="jp-carousel-photo-title-container"> <h2 class="jp-carousel-photo-title"></h2> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-comments-wrapper"> <div id="jp-carousel-comments-loading"> <span>Loading Comments...</span> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-comments"></div> <div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-container"> <span id="jp-carousel-comment-form-spinner"> </span> <div id="jp-carousel-comment-post-results"></div> <form id="jp-carousel-comment-form"> <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" class="screen-reader-text">Write a Comment...</label> <textarea name="comment" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-textarea" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" placeholder="Write a Comment..." ></textarea> <div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-submit-and-info-wrapper"> <div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-commenting-as"> <fieldset> <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">Email</label> <input type="text" name="email" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field" /> </fieldset> <fieldset> <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">Name</label> <input type="text" name="author" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field" /> </fieldset> <fieldset> <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">Website</label> <input type="text" name="url" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field" /> </fieldset> </div> <input type="submit" name="submit" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-button" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-button-submit" value="Post Comment" /> </div> </form> </div> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-image-meta"> <div class="jp-carousel-title-and-caption"> <div class="jp-carousel-photo-info"> <h3 class="jp-carousel-caption" itemprop="caption description"></h3> </div> <div class="jp-carousel-photo-description"></div> </div> <ul class="jp-carousel-image-exif" style="display: none;"></ul> <a class="jp-carousel-image-download" href="#" target="_blank" style="display: none;"> <svg width="25" height="24" viewBox="0 0 25 24" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <mask id="mask0" mask-type="alpha" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x="3" y="3" width="19" height="18"> <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M5.84615 5V19H19.7775V12H21.7677V19C21.7677 20.1 20.8721 21 19.7775 21H5.84615C4.74159 21 3.85596 20.1 3.85596 19V5C3.85596 3.9 4.74159 3 5.84615 3H12.8118V5H5.84615ZM14.802 5V3H21.7677V10H19.7775V6.41L9.99569 16.24L8.59261 14.83L18.3744 5H14.802Z" fill="white"/> </mask> <g mask="url(#mask0)"> <rect x="0.870605" width="23.8823" height="24" fill="#FFFFFF"/> </g> </svg> <span class="jp-carousel-download-text"></span> </a> <div class="jp-carousel-image-map" style="display: none;"></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> window.WPCOM_sharing_counts = {"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2024\/05\/16\/secret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid\/":30827,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2024\/04\/30\/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-the-secret-life-of-polaroid-ceo-edwin-land-part-1\/":30767,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2023\/12\/11\/the-secret-history-of-minnesota-part-1-engineering-research-associates\/":30190,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2023\/08\/29\/before-there-was-oppenheimer-there-was-vannevar-bush\/":29888,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2013\/01\/14\/the-endless-frontier-u-s-science-and-national-industrial-policy-part-1\/":13075,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2011\/09\/15\/the-pay-it-forward-culture\/":9881,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2010\/03\/08\/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-15-agena-the-secret-space-truck-ferret%e2%80%99s-and-stanford\/":5135,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2010\/01\/28\/balloon-wars\/":4808,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2010\/01\/18\/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-14-weapons-system-117l-and-corona\/":4633,"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/2010\/01\/07\/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-13-lockheed-the-startup-with-nuclear-missiles\/":4564}; </script> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=249643311490&version=v2.3'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <script> document.body.addEventListener( 'is.post-load', function() { if ( 'undefined' !== typeof FB ) { FB.XFBML.parse(); } } ); </script> <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function () { var currentScript = document.currentScript; // Helper function to load an external script. function loadScript( url, cb ) { var script = document.createElement( 'script' ); var prev = currentScript || document.getElementsByTagName( 'script' )[ 0 ]; script.setAttribute( 'async', true ); script.setAttribute( 'src', url ); prev.parentNode.insertBefore( script, prev ); script.addEventListener( 'load', cb ); } function init() { loadScript( 'https://platform.linkedin.com/in.js?async=true', function () { if ( typeof IN !== 'undefined' ) { IN.init(); } } ); } if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) { document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', init ); } else { init(); } document.body.addEventListener( 'is.post-load', function() { if ( typeof IN !== 'undefined' ) { IN.parse(); } } ); } )(); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function () { // Pinterest shared resources var s = document.createElement( 'script' ); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.setAttribute( 'data-pin-hover', true ); s.src = window.location.protocol + '//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js'; var x = document.getElementsByTagName( 'script' )[ 0 ]; x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x); // if 'Pin it' button has 'counts' make container wider function init() { var shares = document.querySelectorAll( 'li.share-pinterest' ); for ( var i = 0; i < shares.length; i++ ) { var share = shares[ i ]; var countElement = share.querySelector( 'a span' ); if (countElement) { var countComputedStyle = window.getComputedStyle(countElement); if ( countComputedStyle.display === 'block' ) { var countWidth = parseInt( countComputedStyle.width, 10 ); share.style.marginRight = countWidth + 11 + 'px'; } } } } if ( document.readyState !== 'complete' ) { document.addEventListener( 'load', init ); } else { init(); } } )(); </script> <script id="tumblr-js" type="text/javascript" src="https://assets.tumblr.com/share-button.js"></script> <script> ( function () { var currentScript = document.currentScript; // Don't use Pocket's default JS as it we need to force init new Pocket share buttons loaded via JS. function jetpack_sharing_pocket_init() { var script = document.createElement( 'script' ); var prev = currentScript || document.getElementsByTagName( 'script' )[ 0 ]; script.setAttribute( 'async', true ); script.setAttribute( 'src', 'https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1' ); prev.parentNode.insertBefore( script, prev ); } if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) { document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', jetpack_sharing_pocket_init ); } else { jetpack_sharing_pocket_init(); } document.body.addEventListener( 'is.post-load', jetpack_sharing_pocket_init ); } )(); </script> <script type="text/javascript" id="jetpack-carousel-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var jetpackSwiperLibraryPath = {"url":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/jetpack\/_inc\/build\/carousel\/swiper-bundle.min.js"}; var jetpackCarouselStrings = {"widths":[370,700,1000,1200,1400,2000],"is_logged_in":"","lang":"en","ajaxurl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","nonce":"ce0cfce8ef","display_exif":"1","display_comments":"1","single_image_gallery":"1","single_image_gallery_media_file":"","background_color":"black","comment":"Comment","post_comment":"Post Comment","write_comment":"Write a Comment...","loading_comments":"Loading Comments...","image_label":"Open image in full-screen.","download_original":"View full size <span class=\"photo-size\">{0}<span class=\"photo-size-times\">\u00d7<\/span>{1}<\/span>","no_comment_text":"Please be sure to submit some text with your comment.","no_comment_email":"Please provide an email address to comment.","no_comment_author":"Please provide your name to comment.","comment_post_error":"Sorry, but there was an error posting your comment. Please try again later.","comment_approved":"Your comment was approved.","comment_unapproved":"Your comment is in moderation.","camera":"Camera","aperture":"Aperture","shutter_speed":"Shutter Speed","focal_length":"Focal Length","copyright":"Copyright","comment_registration":"0","require_name_email":"0","login_url":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fsteveblank.com%2F2024%2F05%2F16%2Fsecret-history-when-kodak-went-to-war-with-polaroid%2F","blog_id":"1","meta_data":["camera","aperture","shutter_speed","focal_length","copyright"]}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type='text/javascript' src='https://steveblank.com/_static/??-eJyVzM0OgjAQBOAXsmwVf07GRzGl3eC2y1JpN4S3h4NcjR5nJvPN2fhRKkqFzNqTFIhYs/MJniQeOiUO4N00akHeN7MXzUDSxHKYf2IqMQbTO2aclm/pP5YpYYG3ouLLSdiAz/8x3I+31p7s9XK2KyLnV3k='></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://stats.wp.com/e-202448.js" id="jetpack-stats-js" data-wp-strategy="defer"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="jetpack-stats-js-after"> /* <![CDATA[ */ _stq = window._stq || []; _stq.push([ "view", JSON.parse("{\"v\":\"ext\",\"blog\":\"6599589\",\"post\":\"0\",\"tz\":\"-8\",\"srv\":\"steveblank.com\",\"hp\":\"atomic\",\"ac\":\"2\",\"amp\":\"0\",\"j\":\"1:14.1-a.7\"}") ]); _stq.push([ "clickTrackerInit", "6599589", "0" ]); /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://steveblank.com/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.min.js?ver=3.7.1" id="jquery-core-js"></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='https://steveblank.com/_static/??wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js,wp-includes/js/swfobject.js?m=1686289764'></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://v0.wordpress.com/js/videopress.js?ver=1.09" id="videopress-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="media-video-jwt-bridge-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var videopressAjax = {"ajaxUrl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","bridgeUrl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/jetpack\/jetpack_vendor\/automattic\/jetpack-videopress\/src\/..\/build\/lib\/token-bridge.js","post_id":"4633"}; var videopressAjax = {"ajaxUrl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","bridgeUrl":"https:\/\/steveblank.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/jetpack\/jetpack_vendor\/automattic\/jetpack-videopress\/src\/..\/build\/lib\/token-bridge.js","post_id":"4633"}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://steveblank.com/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/jetpack_vendor/automattic/jetpack-videopress/src/../build/lib/token-bridge.js?ver=0.25.2" id="media-video-jwt-bridge-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="sharing-js-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var sharing_js_options = {"lang":"en","counts":"1","is_stats_active":"1"}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://steveblank.com/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/_inc/build/sharedaddy/sharing.min.js?ver=14.1-a.7" id="sharing-js-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="sharing-js-js-after"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var windowOpen; ( function () { function matches( el, sel ) { return !! ( el.matches && el.matches( sel ) || el.msMatchesSelector && el.msMatchesSelector( sel ) ); } document.body.addEventListener( 'click', function ( event ) { if ( ! event.target ) { return; } var el; if ( matches( event.target, 'a.share-facebook' ) ) { el = event.target; } else if ( event.target.parentNode && matches( event.target.parentNode, 'a.share-facebook' ) ) { el = event.target.parentNode; } if ( el ) { event.preventDefault(); // If there's another sharing window open, close it. if ( typeof windowOpen !== 'undefined' ) { windowOpen.close(); } windowOpen = window.open( el.getAttribute( 'href' ), 'wpcomfacebook', 'menubar=1,resizable=1,width=600,height=400' ); return false; } } ); } )(); var windowOpen; ( function () { function matches( el, sel ) { return !! ( el.matches && el.matches( sel ) || el.msMatchesSelector && el.msMatchesSelector( sel ) ); } document.body.addEventListener( 'click', function ( event ) { if ( ! event.target ) { return; } var el; if ( matches( event.target, 'a.share-telegram' ) ) { el = event.target; } else if ( event.target.parentNode && matches( event.target.parentNode, 'a.share-telegram' ) ) { el = event.target.parentNode; } if ( el ) { event.preventDefault(); // If there's another sharing window open, close it. if ( typeof windowOpen !== 'undefined' ) { windowOpen.close(); } windowOpen = window.open( el.getAttribute( 'href' ), 'wpcomtelegram', 'menubar=1,resizable=1,width=450,height=450' ); return false; } } ); } )(); /* ]]> */ </script> <iframe src='https://widgets.wp.com/likes/master.html?ver=20241127#ver=20241127&n=1' scrolling='no' id='likes-master' name='likes-master' style='display:none;'></iframe> <div id='likes-other-gravatars' class='wpl-new-layout' role="dialog" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><div class="likes-text"><span>%d</span></div><ul class="wpl-avatars sd-like-gravatars"></ul></div> </body> </html>