BUILDING ON THE PAST, READY FOR THE FUTURE: - MEMC

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This is the story about a large corporation that, once
upon a time, started as a small company and grew into
a global force that helps make technology possible.
From its inception, the company that is today MEMC
Electronic Materials, Inc., was a driving force in the
technology that brought
us the Information Age.
At no other time in
human history has the
way we work, the way
we play, and the way
we communicate with
each other changed as
rapidly as it has in the
period from 1970 to
the present. Though
the experiments and
inventions of Thomas
Edison in the late 1800s are considered the birth of
the electronic age, it was the continuing research that
took place in the first half of the twentieth century
that laid the foundation for the Information Age.
C H A P T E R O N E
The Birth of Technology
DiD yoU knoW?
On February 6, 1959, a patent
application was filed for a “Solid
Circuit made of Germanium.”
Subsequently, Texas Instruments was
issued U.S. patent number 3,138,743
for “Miniaturized electronic circuits.”
In 2000 the importance of the
Integrated Circuit (IC) was recognized
when Jack Kilby was awarded the
Nobel Prize in physics.
When World War II ended in 1945, technology
largely remained in the hands of universities, the
military, and industry. Postwar life in America was
good—relieved of the scarcities of war and full of
promise. But even then, homes were still heated
largely by coal, which
was delivered by truck
and dumped through a
chute to the basement.
Food was stored in an
icebox, literally, in an
insulated cabinet cooled
by a block of ice. Clothes
were laundered using a
wringer washing machine
and then hung on the
line to dry. If you were
lucky enough to have
a telephone, your call
was connected by a switchboard operator and
subject to eavesdropping by all the other homes
that shared your “party line.” Most households
had a radio, their only source for music, news,