California turned big ideas into everyday tech. Count down five firsts from the Golden State — from the first laser and electronic TV to the founding of Apple and the internet’s very first message — plus two bonus picks, including a famous arcade test.
#5: The laser (Malibu, 1960)
A beam of pure, focused light — the laser. Theodore Maiman built the first working one in Malibu, 1960. A flash lamp made a ruby crystal fire a red beam. Early on, people called it a solution looking for a problem.
#4: All-electronic TV image (San Francisco, 1927)
Television pictures sent entirely by electronics. Philo Farnsworth sent his first image in San Francisco, 1927. His camera tube turned a picture into electricity, bit by bit. Later, for his money-minded backers, he sent a dollar sign.
#3: The microprocessor (Mountain View, 1971)
A whole computer “brain” on one tiny chip. Intel, founded in Mountain View, released the 4004 in 1971. Its 2,300 transistors fit on a chip the size of a fingernail. It was first made for a printing calculator.
#2: Apple (Los Altos, 1976)
The company behind the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded it on April 1, 1976. It began at the Jobs family home in Los Altos. It outgrew a bedroom before moving to the famous garage.
#1: First internet message (Los Angeles, 1969)
ARPANET: the computer network that grew into the internet. Oct. 29, 1969: UCLA linked to a computer at Stanford Research. Student Charley Kline started typing LOGIN. It crashed after two letters — so the first word was “LO”.
Bonus Picks From California
Pong (Sunnyvale, 1972). Atari tested its Pong arcade game in a Sunnyvale bar, 1972. Al Alcorn built the first machine for Andy Capp’s Tavern. It quit working because the coin box was stuffed with quarters.
Horse in Motion photos (Palo Alto, 1878). In 1878 Eadweard Muybridge lined up 12 cameras in Palo Alto. Trip wires fired each shutter as a horse raced past. They proved all four hooves leave the ground at once.
Tech From Every State
This is part of my Tech From Every State series: the top tech inventions and firsts from each of the 50 states, told with simple animations. Watch the whole series on YouTube and subscribe to The Tech Ranch so you don’t miss your state.
Did we miss something invented in California? Tell me in the YouTube comments — and give the video a thumbs up if you learned something.
