The original Shockley building at 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California, is now a produce market. The historical marker does not mention Shockley by name, since the city council found him unworthy of their commemoration.

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was the first company to work on silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as Silicon Valley. A view of downtown San Jose, the self-proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley. ...

In 1956 William Shockley opened Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as a division of Beckman Instruments in Mountain View; his plan was to develop a new type of "4-layer diode" that would work faster and have more uses than current transistors. At first he attempted to hire some of his former colleagues from Bell Labs, but none were willing to move to the West Coast or work with Shockley again. Instead he founded the core of a new company in the best and brightest new graduates coming out of the engineering schools. William Bradford Shockley (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was a British-born American physicist and inventor. ... Beckman Instruments,now known as Beckman Coulter Inc. ... For the community near Martinez, California, see Mountain View, Contra Costa County, California. ... Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) was the main research and development arm of the United States Bell System. ...

Only a year later the staff was already fed up with Shockley's increasingly bizarre behavior. In one famous incident Shockley's secretary accidentally cut her finger and he became convinced it was a plot against him. He then ordered everyone in the company to take a lie detector test to track down the culprit. It was later demonstrated she had cut herself on a broken thumbtack and Shockley calmed down, but the damage was already done.[1] This had proven to be a decisive example to several key personnel of Shockley's increasing paranoia, and a group of eight engineers decided they had had enough. A secretary is an office/administrative support position. ... A polygraph or lie detector is a device which measures and records several physiological variables such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and skin conductivity while a series of questions is being asked, in an attempt to detect lies. ... For other senses of this word, see paranoia (disambiguation). ...

The group, later known widely as the Traitorous Eight, decided they had reason enough to resign, and all did so. The eight men were Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts. Looking for funding on their own project, they turned to Sherman Fairchild's Fairchild Camera and Instrument, an Eastern U.S. company with considerable military contracts. In 1957 Fairchild Semiconductor was started with plans on making silicon transistors — at the time germanium was still a common material for semiconductor use. The Traitorous Eight at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959. ... Julius Blank is a semiconductor pioneer and a member of the Traitorous Eight. ... Victor Grinich (November 24, 1924 - November 5, 2000) was a pioneer in the semiconductor industry and a member of the Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley. ... Jean Hoerni (1924- January 12, 1997) was a silicon transistor pioneer and a member of the Traitorous Eight. ... Eugene Kleiner (May 12, 1923 – 20 November 2003) was one of the original founders of Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm which later became Harry Balls Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. ... Jay Last is a silicon pioneer and a member of the Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley. ... Gordon Moore This article is about the co-founder of Intel and coiner of what became Moores law. ... Robert Noyce Robert Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed the Mayor of Silicon Valley, co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. ... Sheldon Roberts is a semiconductor pioneer, and member of the Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley. ... Sherman Mills Fairchild (b. ... Fairchild Camera and Instrument was a company founded by Sherman Fairchild. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silicon, Si, 14 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 14, 3, p Appearance dark gray, bluish tinge Atomic mass 28. ... General Name, Symbol, Number germanium, Ge, 32 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 14, 4, p Appearance grayish white Atomic mass 72. ...

See also

Traitorous Eight The Traitorous Eight at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959. ...

External links

• A modern website (shockleytransistor.com) carries on the Shockley name to remember the laboratory and those who first processed silicon in Silicon Valley.