Charles Litton Sr.

Charles Vincent Litton was born on March 13, 1904, in San Francisco, California. His mother was Alice J. Vincent and father was Charles A. Litton.[2] As a boy he experimented with radio technology at his parents' house in Redwood City, California.[2]

Litton learned machining in the California School of Mechanical Arts of San Francisco, and then attended Stanford University, where he graduated with an A.B. in mechanical engineering in 1924 and electrical engineering in 1925.[1]

In the 1920s, he experimented with new techniques and materials for building vacuum tubes. For example, he built the first practical glass blowing lathe. He worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1925 through 1927, and moved back to California in 1927.

The Bay area was an early center of ham radio with about 10% of the operators in the US. William Eitel, Jack McCullough, and Litton, who together pioneered vacuum tube manufacturing in the Bay area, were hobbyists with training in technology who participated in development of shortwave radio by the ham radio hobby. High frequency, and especially, Very high frequency, VHF, transmission in the 10 meter band, required higher quality power tubes than were manufactured by the consortium of RCA, Western Electric, General Electric, Westinghouse, which controlled vacuum tube manufacturing. Litton pioneered manufacturing techniques which resulted in award of wartime contracts to manufacture transmitting tubes for Radar to Eitel-McCullough, a San Bruno firm, which manufactured power-grid tubes for radio amateurs and aircraft radio equipment.[3]

He went to work for the Federal Telegraph Company, and headed tube engineering there.[4] Cecil Howard Green (later the founder of Texas Instruments) worked for Litton during that time.[5] During the Great Depression, Federal was acquired and moved its facilities to New Jersey. Litton stayed in California.

In 1932, he founded Litton Engineering Laboratories with his savings, and continued to experiment in the shop on his parents' Redwood City property. He held 65 patents on various high-tech innovations.[1] Some of these patents resulted in notable litigation.[6] At Frederick Terman's request, Litton helped Stanford build a tube research lab, and recruit David Packard.[7]

During World War II, Litton participated in the design and production of microwave tubes used in communications and radar equipment. In 1941 he formed a partnership called Industrial and Commercial Electronics with Philip Scofield and Ralph Shermund.[4] He was awarded the Presidential Certificate of Merit for work he performed on behalf of the National Defense Resource Committee. Russell and Sigurd Varian used Litton klystron tube-making equipment in their family firm, Varian Associates. Another firm (later called Eimac) founded by fellow amateur radio operators William Eitel and Jack McCullough used Litton technology.[4]

After the war, Litton Industries was incorporated in 1947 to manufacture vacuum tubes and the machinery used to produce them. The company grew rapidly, soon rivaling established electronics firms in the east. On August 3, 1952, Litton split off the glass lathe products, which became the sole proprietorship Litton Engineering Laboratories on May 1, 1953. On November 4, 1953, he sold the vacuum tube manufacturing portion of the company to Electro Dynamics Corporation, which had been founded by Charles Bates "Tex" Thornton.[8] In 1954, Electro Dynamics bought the rights to the name Litton Industries.[6] It grew to a multi-national conglomerate. Also in 1954, Litton moved the machinery manufacturing division into a new facility in Grass Valley, California. Litton convinced friend Dr. Donald Hare to move to Grass Valley, and Hare's company became the Grass Valley Group.[9]

He died in November 1972 in Carson City, Nevada.[10] His papers are in the collection of The Bancroft Library.[2] His sons Charles Jr. and Larry carried on the business of producing glassworking lathes under the "Litton Engineering Laboratories" name in Grass Valley. He also had five grand children.