Varian Associates was one of the first

high-tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...

companies in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian,

William Webster Hansen William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, and

Edward Ginzton Edward Leonard Ginzton (December 27, 1915 – August 13, 1998) was a Ukrainian-American engineer. Education Ginzton completed his B.S. (1936) and M.S. (1937) in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph. ...

to sell the

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequenci ...

, the first vacuum tube which could amplify

electromagnetic waves In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) lig ...

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

frequencies, and other electromagnetic equipment. Varian Associates split into three companies in 1999:

Varian Medical Systems Varian Medical Systems is an American radiation oncology treatments and software maker based in Palo Alto, California. Their medical devices include linear accelerators (LINACs) and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions wi ...

Varian, Inc. Varian, Inc. was one of the largest manufacturers of scientific instruments for the scientific industry. They had offerings over a broad range of chemical analysis equipment, with a particular focus on Information Rich Detection and Vacuum tech ...

and

Varian Semiconductor Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. was a supplier of ion implantation equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. Varian Semiconductor was founded in 1971 as Extrion Corporation in Peabody, Massachusetts. Extrion later ...

Incorporation and leadership

On April 20, 1948, the Articles of Incorporation were filed, signed by nine directors:

, who had worked with the Varian brothers since his days as a doctoral student;

, Richard M. Leonard, an attorney;

Leonard I. Schiff Leonard Isaac Schiff was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on March 29, 1915 and died on January 21, 1971 in Stanford, California. He was a physicist best known for his book ''Quantum Mechanics'', originally published in 1949 (a second edition appe ...

, then head of the physics department at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

; H. Myrl Stearns, Russell H. Varian, his wife, Dorothy Varian, Sigurd F. Varian and Paul B. Hunter. The company began with six full-time employees: the Varian brothers, Dorothy, Myrl Stearns, Fred Salisbury, and Don Snow. Technical and business assistance came from several members of the faculty at Stanford University, including Edward Ginzton, Marvin Chodorow, William Hansen, and Leonard Schiff. The company's legal counsel was Dick Leonard, a San Francisco attorney, and Paul Hunter, a patent attorney, handled matters related to patents and intellectual property rights. Francis Farquhar, an accountant and friend of Russell's from the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

, later became a director, as did

Frederick Terman Frederick Emmons Terman (; June 7, 1900 – December 19, 1982) was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is wid ...

, dean of engineering at Stanford, and

David Packard David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–6 ...

, of

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

.Lecuyer, page 100 Russell served as the company president and a board member until his death;Peterson, p. 960 Sigurd served as vice-president for engineering, and served on the board of directors until his death, sometimes serving as chairman of the board."1993 Hall of Fame Recipients" Silicon Valley Engineering Council
/ref> Following the deaths of both Varian brothers, Ginzton became the CEO of the company. Under Thomas D. Sege, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) from 1981 to 1990, sales grew to exceed $1 billion per annum. In 1990, J. Tracy O'Rourke replaced Sege as CEO and was also made chairman of the board.

Early projects and goals

They initially created the company to commercialize the klystron
/ref> and develop other technologies, such as small

linear accelerators A linear particle accelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beam ...

to generate

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...

s for external beam

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

. They also were interested in

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

technology. One of Varian Associates' major contracts in the 1950s was to create a fuse for the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. The Varian brothers had initially been supportive of military applications for the klystron and other technologies, on the grounds that they were primarily defensive weapons. This contract was different. Although politically progressive to the point of having socialist leanings, the Varians were patriotic at heart and had no sympathy for the Marxist model of socialism practiced by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. They also needed military contracts to survive and relished the technical challenges of this sort of work. As early as 1958 Russell and Sigurd expressed regret for their involvement in the development of weapons of mass destruction. Most of the founders of Varian Associates, had progressive political leanings,Lecuyer, p. 94 and the company "pioneered profit-sharing, stock-ownership, insurance, and retirement plans for employees long before these benefits became mandatory". Nearly 50 years later, in 1997 the company was recognized by '' Industry Week'' as one of the best-managed companies in America. Among their early employees was bookkeeper Clara Jobs, mother of

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

History

The company was initially headquartered in

San Carlos, California San Carlos (Spanish for "St. Charles") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population is 30,722 per the 2020 census. History Native Americans Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1769, the land of San Carlos was occupi ...

,Lécuyer, p. 101-103 and started with only $22,000 in funding. It had problems raising additional capital, particularly due to Russell's insistence that the company be owned by its employees and his related refusal to accept outside investors. Hansen mortgaged his home for $17,000 to raise additional cash, and the group sought additional funds from friends. Ultimately the company raised $120,000 of capital via an offer of stock to all employees, directors, consultants, and a few sympathetic local investors who shared the company's goals. Military contracts for technology deemed necessary during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, including some classified projects helped the firm succeed. In 1953, Varian Associates moved its headquarters to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

, at

Stanford Industrial Park Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a technology park established in 1951 as a joint initiative between Stanford University and the Palo Alto, California, City of Palo Alto. It has more than 150 companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Tesla Motors, TIB ...

– noted as the "spawning ground of Silicon Valley" – and was the first firm to occupy a site there. In 1967, Varian entered the computer business by acquiring ''Decision Control Inc.'' (DCI) and renamed it

Varian Data Machines Varian Data Machines was a division of Varian Associates which sold minicomputers. It entered the market in 1967 through acquisition of Decision Control Inc. (DCI) in Newport Beach, California. It met stiff competition and was bought by Sperry Co ...

. Their computers competed mainly with machines like those from

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...

(DEC). 10 years later, Varian Data Machines was sold to

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

. On April 2, 1999, the company spun off its Gloucester, Massachusetts ion-implantation equipment business into Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates and its Palo Alto-based scientific instrument business into

The medical equipment business, which included manufacturing x-ray tubes in Salt Lake City, Utah, renamed itself

, Inc. and remained headquartered in Palo Alto. After the breakup, O'Rourke served as Varian Semiconductor's chairman.

, was later acquired by

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California. Agilent was establi ...

in May, 2010. On Jan 30th 2017, Varian Medical Systems, Inc.(NYSE:VAR) spun off its X-Ray & Imaging Components business, primarily located in Salt Lake City, Utah to form VAREX Imaging Corporation (NASDAQ: VREX), a publicly listed company. The remaining part of medical equipment business, which mainly consists of oncology radiation business and proton therapy business remain with Varian Medical Systems, Inc. Headquarters remains in the Stanford Research Park, Palo Alto, California.Varian Announces Successful Separation of Imaging Components Business
/ref>

Legacy

In 1998, the

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...

noted the 50th anniversary of the founding of Varian Associates, which then employed 7,000 people at 100 plants in nine countries. It had branched out into health care systems, analytical equipment and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. California Representative

Anna Eshoo Anna A. Eshoo ( ; née Georges; born December 13, 1942) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from . She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 14th district from 1993 to 2013, is based in Silico ...

stated that the company had been awarded over 10,000 patents and was a "jewel in the crown of...Silicon Valley".Eshoo, Anna
"Honoring Varian Associates, Inc." ''Congressional Record'', United States House of Representatives, April 23,1998
p. 6696

References

Sources

* * *Hicks, Michael (2002). Henry Cowell, Bohemian. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. * * * *

External links

*
Early history of Varian Associates
hosted by Communications & Power Industries, which bought Varian's electron device business in 1995
About Varian Inc. - An Early History

* ttp://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt7f59q4cp/ Guide to the Varian Associates Recordsat

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{Authority control Electronics companies of the United States American companies established in 1948 Varian family 1948 establishments in California Electronics companies established in 1948