Historical Figure
William Redington Hewlett
1913–2001
American engineer (1913–2001)
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Biography
William Redington Hewlett was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP).
Timeline
The story of William Redington Hewlett, told in moments.
Founds Hewlett-Packard with David Packard in Packard's garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto. They flip a coin to decide whose name goes first. Bill wins. Their first product is an audio oscillator. Walt Disney Studios buys eight of them for the sound design of Fantasia.
Joins the Army Signal Corps as a captain. Packard runs the company alone. When Hewlett returns after the war, HP has 200 employees and $1.5 million in revenue. They move out of the garage.
Introduces the "HP Way," a management philosophy built on open floor plans, flexible hours, and management by walking around. No time clocks. No locked storerooms. Engineers can take parts home for personal projects. The approach becomes a model for Silicon Valley culture.
HP releases the HP-35, the world's first handheld scientific calculator. It fits in a shirt pocket and makes the slide rule obsolete overnight. Engineers call it "the electronic slide rule." It costs $395. They sell 100,000 in the first year.
Dies at his home in Palo Alto at 87. The garage where HP started is now California Historical Landmark No. 976, marked as "the birthplace of Silicon Valley." His charitable foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, holds over $9 billion in assets.
Artifacts (15)
California Digital Library (IA catalogueofbooks00redp)
Redpath Library Redpath, Peter, 1821-1894
Essex Institute historical collections (IA essexinstitutehiv31esse)
Essex Institute. 1n
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest04mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest05mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest06mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest08mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest09mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest10mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
The British colonies - their history, extent, condition and resources (IA britishcoloniest11mart)
Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868
A general directory and business guide of the principal towns in the upper country (IA generaldirector00owen)
Owens, George, [from old catalog] comp
I was tattooed by the same man who tattooed Papa.
alem Cross to commemorate their visit twenty years after their father had obtained the same tattoo. George wrote of the experience "I was tattooed by the same man who tattooed Papa." Dalton wrote an...
Creating a Cognitive Agent in a Virtual World: Planning, Navigation, and Natural Language Generation
Creating believable virtual humans for use in interactive video games and other computer graphics applications is a serious challenge. Much research has focused on how to create human models that...
the impression which seemed to prevail among [our] brethren across the seas, tha...
British press on a land few knew about. On his return to Britain, in a speech at Guildhall, London, George warned of "the impression which seemed to prevail among [our] brethren across the seas, that...
I held a council at 10:45 to declare war with Germany. It is a terrible catastro...
h Home Rule was suspended for the duration of the war. === First World War === On 4 August 1914, George wrote in his diary, "I held a council at 10:45 to declare war with Germany. It is a terrible...
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