Shockley, fresh from his resignation from Bell, offers Beckham Instruments the opportunity to manufacture transistors using gaseous diffusion to dope the semiconductor. Beckham Instruments accepts and plans to build a new division of the company in Los Angeles. Shockley, however, insists on locating it in Palo Alto, so he can be close to his elderly mother. This choice will later lead other companies to choose Palo Alto, giving rise, within a few years, to Silicon Valley. All thanks to Shockley’s mother…
