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Arc of Empire: The Federal Telegraph Company, the U.S. Navy, and the Beginnings of Silicon Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2017

Stephen B. Adams
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Abstract

The early history of Silicon Valley is incomplete unless it is framed within the context of American foreign policy. The Federal Telegraph Company, the region's first major high-technology firm, received its first contract from the U.S. Navy in 1913. Its subsequent success relied not only on navy contracts but also on State Department support and access to Bureau of Standards technology. The company's contributions to America's military-industrial complex began a pattern that would fuel the region's development and growth for more than a half century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 91 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 329 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2017 

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95 Clark, “Radio in War and Peace,” 282, GCC.

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97 Aitken, Continuous Wave, 289.

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105 Chauncey Eldridge, untitled appendix dated June 1, 1914, in Report on Poulsen Wireless, 5–6, Federal Telegraph Company Collection, HSJ; “Dr. Dodge to Head Federal Telegraph,” San Francisco Examiner, 8 Dec. 1917.

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110 History of the Bureau of Engineering Navy Department during the World War (Washington, D.C., 1922), 114–15.

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124 San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Jan. 1913; “Our Flag Stays on the Pacific,” New York Times, 14 Dec. 1915; San Francisco Examiner, 15 Nov. 1915; “Schwerin Asks for Federal Aid for Steamships . . . Urges Federal Subsidies,” San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Aug. 1913.

125 Tuel to Pratt, 23 Sept. 1919, 72/116z, box 2, folder “Tuel, A. Y., Letters, June–November 1919,” Pratt Papers, BL.

126 Thompson to Veeder, 18 Apr. 1913, 2003-37-6, Federal Telegraph Company Collection, HSJ; Eldridge, untitled appendix, in Report on Poulsen Wireless, 11, Federal Telegraph Company Collection, HSJ.

127 Mann, “Federal Telephone and Radio,” 396.

128 Charles C. Moore & Co. Engineers to Schwerin, 3 Nov. 1922, 2003-36-89, box 21, folder 2, Elliott Papers, HSJ.

129 Kirwan, “Federal Telegraph Company.” Federal's share of the contract was $6.5 million.

130 “Contract for China and U.S. Radio Signed,” San Francisco Examiner, 10 Aug. 1923.

131 Schwerin Memorandum, n.d., and Schwerin to Beach, 23 Dec. 1920, both in RG 80, 1916–1926, 8247 (350)–8247 (407), box 393, NA.

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139 Ironically, a few years earlier the Japanese government had approached Federal about purchasing radio transmitting devices. Waller to Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, 14 Aug. 1918, RG 19 (Bureau of Ships), entry 1081, box 1, folder 3, NA.

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144 Beal to Fuller, 27 Jan. 1919, SRM 37 252, series 37, box 189, folder 1, GCC.

145 Wireless Specialty Co., memo, 5 Aug. 1919, SRM 37 119, series 37, box 188, folder 1, GCC.

146 Redfield to Director, Bureau of Standards, 23 Oct. 1917, RG 167, National Bureau of Standards General Corr., 1901–1922 AG-AGA-AGL AGP-AF box 4, folder AP 1917, NA; Stratton to Bureau of Lighthouses, 26 Feb. 1921, RG 167, box 10, folder IEW 1921–1922, NA.

147 Commissioner, Bureau of Navigation to Director, Bureau of Standards, 5 May 1915, RG 167, box 4, folder AGP 1901–1922, NA; History of the Bureau of Engineering, 96; Stratton to Shoemaker, Patent Office, 28 Aug. 1919, RG 167, box 4, folder AGP, 1901–1922, NA.

148 “Comments on pages 12 to 116,” 54, box 3, folder “Notes on History of Radio,” Pratt Papers, BL; “Report of Section 6, Division I, 1 July 1920 to 30 June 1921,” 15 July 1921, RG 167, box 10, NC–76, Entry 75, folder “Annual Reports, 1919–1923,” Miscellaneous Papers, 1875–1962, Records of J. Howard Dellinger, NA.

149 “New Device Saves Ships in Fog,” New York Times, 28 June 1921, 19; Federal Telegraph Company, The Conquest of the Fog (ca.1924), p. 3, 2003-37-24, Federal Telegraph Company Collection, HSJ; Elliott to Schwerin, 22 Nov. 1923, box 22, folder 2, Elliott Papers, HSJ. Even when Kolster worked for the government, Federal had arranged for the rights to his patented inventions. Federal Telegraph Company contract with Navy, 18 May 1918, box 2, folder 2, SCH.

150 By early 1925, the company's letterhead highlighted Federal's transmitter and Kolster's radio compass and receivers. Lee to Director, Bureau of Standards, 11 Feb. 1925, RG 167, NC-76, entry 52, “Blue Folder Files,” 1902–52, 63–138, box 2, folder 63c, folder IEW, NA.

151 Stone to Pratt, 29 Dec. 1921, 2003-36-86, box 20, folder 5, Elliott Papers, HSJ; Mann, “Federal Telephone and Radio,” 399; O. H. Fernbach, “Federal Telegraph Merger Details Announced; Rudolph Spreckels Enlightens Shareholders,” San Francisco Examiner, 28 Jan. 1926.

152 “Frederick A. Kolster, Radio Research Engineer,” SRM 4 985, series 4, box 15, folder “Kolster, Frederick,” GCC; Leib, Keyston & Co., Kolster Radio Corporation: The Strategic Exploitation of a New Science (San Francisco, 1928), chap. 5Google Scholar [pages not numbered], 2003-37-23, HSJ.

153 Aitken, Continuous Wave, 25–27.

154 Fuller, interview by George T. Royden, 29 May 1976, IEEE Oral History Project, 7, IEEE History Center, Piscataway, N.J.

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157 Terman to Elliott, 2 Oct. 1923 and 15 Oct. 1923, box 22, folder 1, Elliott Papers, HSJ.

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