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Somehow Willis Adcock succeeded when others failed. Everybody in the semiconductor business in the 1950s knew about silicon, and most people knew it could possibly overcome the limitations of germanium transistors. Everybody knew that silicon had great potential. But it was just too difficult to manufacture a silicon transistor. It was an impossible process. Lots of people had tried. Along came Willis Adcock, who didn't know any better, so he grew silicon. A year after Geophysical Service Inc., a seismic-survey company, changed its name to Texas Instruments in 1951, it became one of 20 companies to pay Western Electric $25,000 for a license to produce transistors. Then, in November 1952, TI hired Gordon Teal from Bell Labs, where the transistor originated, to head its Central Research Lab.