Technology, 1939

Hewlett-Packard is founded by California engineers William Redington Hewlett, 26, and David Packard, 27, whose firm will become the leading U.S. producer of electronic instruments.

• Headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
• 604 track _Flight Path (Touchdown Dub Mix)_ MP3 (192k) by HP Source off of _The Abyss_ compilation on MDMA (2000)
• HP Crystal Laboratory
• Anomalog: New HP Device Converts VHS to DVD
• the mother of all palm computing - HP200LX

California Registered Historical Landmark #976 is a garage at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto.  It's the birthplace of the world's first and premier high tech region, the "Silicon Valley".  The idea for such a region originated with Dr. Fredrick Terman, a Stanford University professor who encouraged his students to start up their own electronics companies locally, rather than join established firms on the east coast.

The first two students to follow his advice were David Packard, who in 1938 was renting (with his wife) the ground floor of a small house, and William R. Hewlett, who was single and living in a tiny shingled cottage in the back yard.

That year they began developing their first product in a 12'x18' garage adjacent to the cottage.  Hewlett Packard's first big order arrived two years later; Walt Disney Productions purchased four resistance-tuned audio oscillators for sound production of the classic film _Fantasia_.

Star Wars Episode 1: _The Phantom Menace_ (vhs/ntsc)

Among the props in the background aboard the ship as the group leaves Tatooine are three Hewlett-Packard Inkjet cartridges.
 
 

Without doubt the most famous and enigmatic ancient crystal is the skull, discovered in 1927 by F.A. Mitchell-Hedges atop a ruined temple at the ancient Mayan city of Lubaantum, in British Honduras, now Belize.

The skull was made from a single block of clear quartz, 5 inches high, 7 inches long and 5 inches wide. It is about the size of a small human cranium, with near perfect detail. In 1970, art restorer Frank Dorland was given permission to submit the skull to tests at the Hewlitt-Packard Laboratories. Revealed were many anomalies.

The skull had been carved with total disregard to the natural crystal axis, a process unheard-of in modern crystallography. No metal tools were used. Dorland was unable to find any tell-tale scratch marks. Indeed, most metals would have been ineffectual. A modern penknife cannot mark it. From tiny patterns near the carved surfaces, Dorland determined it was first chiseled into rough form, probably using diamonds. The finer shaping, grinding and polishing, Dorland believes, was done with innumerable applications of water and silicon-crystal sand. If true, it would have taken 300 years of continuous labor. We must accept this almost unimaginable feat, or admit to the use of some form of lost technology.

Modern science is stumped to explain the skill and knowledge incorporated. As Garvin summarized:It is virtually impossible today, in the time when men have climbed mountains on the moon, to duplicate this achievement...It would not be a question of skill, patience and time. It would simply be impossible. As one crystallographer from Hewlitt-Packard said, The damned thing shouldn't be.

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