Comments on: The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/ Entrepreneurship and Conservation Wed, 16 May 2012 23:53:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Augusta Prince http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-3519 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:08:16 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-3519 My late friend Gordon P. McCouch wrote in his Harvard ’41 25th anniversary report: “I spent the war as a civilian associated with the radar countermeasures effort at Harvard’s Radio Research Laboratory. From mid-1943 until the summer of ’45, I was in England doing liaison work with the RAF, installing the first radar jammers in a wing of the 8th Bomber Command under Colonel LeMay, and in France, Belgium, and Germany analyzing captured electronic equipment, and working on captured electronic equipment, and working in communications for the 9th Air Force. These exciting days of contact with stimulating, dedicated people provided a breadth of experience which I still treasure.”

Is there anything more to be added to his memoir? Thanks.

]]> By: The Secret History of Silicon Valley 12: The Rise of “Risk Capital” Part 2 « Steve Blank http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-1795 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:30:58 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-1795 [...] to get acquired to raise money or get their founders and investors liquid. Interestingly enough, Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford Engineering was tied to all three [...]

]]> By: Elephants Can Dance – Reinventing HP « Steve Blank http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-682 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:31:47 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-682 [...] March of 1956, Fred Terman, the Stanford professor who encouraged Bill Hewlett and David Packard to start HP, wrote Bill [...]

]]> By: Alexander Mikhalev http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-338 Mon, 11 May 2009 16:21:24 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-338 Thank you Steve, it is really useful for me and hopefully few EW students.

]]> By: John Dunham http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-285 Sun, 03 May 2009 23:25:50 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-285 Steve: thanks for identifying a previously hidden synchronistic loop in my life. My first job out of RPI was as an engineer on the EF-111, an electronic counter measures laden derivative of the original F-111 swing-wing fighter / bomber. Had not yet heard of Silicon Valley at the time, but the siren call was already sounding. My first business trip to the valley was to visit California Microwave. I ultimately answered that call, joining Sun Microsystems with a 3-digit employee number. And now am leading a startup of my own (http://saucelabs.com) where we’re students of you and Eric Ries’ lean startup principles. Thanks for connecting the historical dots!

]]> By: History buff http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-255 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:49:44 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-255 Excellent stuff Steve – thanks for the heads up on Fred Terman. Will check out this aspect of WW2 history from your post – amazing really, “kindly dean and innovative provost” doesn’t even begin to tell the half of it.

David

]]> By: Benjamin A. Shelton | Blog » Blog Archive » Links: April 29th http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-253 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:02:27 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-253 [...] is an interesting write up on World War II and how it influenced Silicon Valley. I had no idea that electronic countermeasures like this were [...]

]]> By: Tim http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-251 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:13:45 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-251 The description of chaff is a little misleading. The effect was discussed before WWII even started, and in 1942 the British and Germans independently developed their own version of it (“window” and “dueppel”).

Its use was *deliberately* suppressed until 1943, to avoid the Germans relaunching a second Blitz.

]]> By: Μπράβο στον Δημήτρη Ιατρίδη, που όλα τα προλαβαίνει! « Τσουκνίδα http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-245 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:45:44 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-245 [...]  The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong This is Part VI of how I came to write “The Secret History of Silicon Valley“. This post makes a lot more sense if [...] [...]

]]> By: Top Posts « WordPress.com http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-242 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:25:34 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-242 [...] The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong This is Part VI of how I came to write “The Secret History of Silicon Valley“. This post makes a lot more sense if [...] [...]

]]> By: steveblank http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-240 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:04:39 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-240 Brian,
You’re right. It should have said something like, “Not only didn’t the movie makers know, but the pilots and crews didn’t know the size and scale of the the German radar guided system trying to kill them. Nor did they know the full extent of resources put in place to provide the electronic shield being assembled to try to protect them.

steve

]]> By: steveblank http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-239 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:52:22 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-239 Ben,
Thanks for the reading suggestions. I just put Guerlac’s and Eckert/Schubert’s books in my “to read” pile. I’ve had “The Closed World” on my shelf for 10 years, but it didn’t make an impression. I’ll go back and give it another read.
My two cents is that’s it’s less of a “disinterest in history” than an inability to make the history of technology accessible to a non-technical audience. It’s the tension between being “technically accurate” and writing something your mother could understand. Few writers do it well.
Add to that, in this particular area the subject was/is classified during the cold war.

steve

]]> By: Brian Dunbar http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-237 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:54:05 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-237 Not only didn’t the movie makers know, but the pilots and crews didn’t know about the German radar guided system trying to kill them. Nor did they know about the electronic shield being assembled to try to protect them.

I have trouble with the last sentence.

You wrote that the crews were dumping tinfoil. That every bomber had multiple jammers. That every bomb run was accompanied by electronic warfare planes.

I can easily believe this did not make it’s way into the movies: it’s pretty dull stuff for a movie. Need to know would keep the details and the full sweep of the shield a secret from the crews.

But you couldn’t keep something that big a complete secret from the crews. If nothing else you’d expect them to notice the planes flying around with the weird antennas and no bombs …

Or could you?

]]> By: Ben Tanen http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-236 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:18:26 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-236 Awesome post, Steve. I propose that most of these things are secret due to disinterest in history, not because they have been particularly concealed.

In your spare time you should use the library to dig out Henry Guerlac’s great two-volume set called “Radar in World War II” — it is cited heavily by Buderi and others, and rightly so. On microelectronics, with a nice section on the post-war Valley and the Shockley descendants, I would add Michael Eckert and Helmut Schubert’s “Crystals, Electrons, Transistors.” On Cold War/computing/etc., I would add “The Closed World” by Paul N. Edwards.

On RRL, you probably would love to visit the Harvard Archives and have them pull out some material for you. I had the privilege of doing my undergrad thesis on the information design and radar display work that was done at the Radiation Lab (MIT) and at the Psycho-Acoustic / Electro-Acoustic Labs (Harvard — which were often lumped together with RRL). The archives are amazing when you get a box full of correspondence on (real!) carbon copy paper.

The number of other important figures who passed through or led these labs is quite extraordinary. Lee DuBridge led the Radiation Laboratory, was of the same generation as Terman, and went on to a hugely successful presidency of CalTech. Leo Beranek led the EAL and went on to co-found BBN. And so on.

Feel free to write me directly; would love to talk to you more about this.

Regards,
Ben Tanen

]]> By: rohit sharma http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-235 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:47:06 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-235 in addition to his WWII contributions, Terman also helped educate a generation of engineers or two with his excellent text. my father who had been at Harvard in ’60s remembered the excellent lab manuals that Terman had authored (including some at MIT Lincoln Lab) and brought an old edition for me that was a revelation in radio, modulation, and radar…

]]> By: Wall 85: Squint « 365 Wallpapers http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-234 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:29:11 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-234 [...] http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fre… [...]

]]> By: dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » a secret history http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/#comment-231 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:25:07 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1283#comment-231 [...] invention of electronic warfare, part I and [...]

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