70:32
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
[Recorded: March 28, 2012] Bell Laboratories, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, w...
published: 04 Apr 2012
Author: ComputerHistory
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
[Recorded: March 28, 2012] Bell Laboratories, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, was the most innovative and productive institution of the twentieth century. Long before America's brightest scientific minds began migrating west to Silicon Valley, they flocked to this sylvan campus in the New Jersey suburbs built and funded by AT&T. At its peak, Bell Labs employed nearly fifteen thousand people, twelve hundred of whom had PhDs. Thirteen would go on to win Nobel prizes. It was a citadel of science and scholarship as well as a hotbed of creative thinking. It was, in effect, a factory of ideas whose workings have remained largely hidden until now. New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner unveils the unique magic of Bell Labs through the eyes and actions of its scientists. These ingenious, often eccentric men would become revolutionaries, and sometimes legends, whether for inventing radio astronomy in their spare time (and on the company's dime), riding unicycles through the corridors, or pioneering the principles that propel today's technology. In these pages, we learn how radar came to be, and lasers, transistors, satellites, mobile phones, and much more. Even more important, Gertner reveals the forces that set off this explosion of creativity. Bell Labs combined the best aspects of the academic and corporate worlds, hiring the brightest and usually the youngest minds, creating a culture and even an architecture that forced employees in different fields to work <b>...</b>
11:51
AT&T; Archives: Inventing the Laser at Bell Labs
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com AT&T's Bell Laborat...
published: 25 May 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
AT&T; Archives: Inventing the Laser at Bell Labs
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com AT&T's Bell Laboratories always calibrated the birth of the laser to 1958 — the publication date of AT&T Labs continues laser research related to communications as well. Here are some of the highlights of that laser history (below); some of these are touched upon in this video, which gives the background to the development of laser theory and technology, then profiles the laser's applications and new developments to 1988. The film includes interviews with both Townes and Schawlow. 1960: Ali Javan and William Bennett Jr. develop the first helium-neon laser. 1960: the first phone call is transmitted via laser at Bell Labs. 1962: the first yttrium aluminum garnet laser is developed at Bell Labs. 1964: Kumar Patel at Bell Labs invents the carbon dioxide laser; it is the primary tool in laser surgery. 1964: the Nd:YAG laser is invented by Joseph Geusic and Richard Smith at Bell Labs. 1965: the first tunable laser is developed by J. Giordmaine and Robert Miller. 1965: a laser is used at Bell Labs to create the first 2-color hologram. 1970: Arthur Ashkin invents optical trapping, a process in which atoms are trapped by lasers. 1971: Izuo Hayashi and Morton Panish design the first semiconductor laser that runs at room temperature. 1972: laser beams are used to etch circuits on ceramic materials. 1977: the first laser-fiber-optic communications system is installed in Chicago. 1983: Linn Mollenauer and Roger Stolen create <b>...</b>
3:50
Bell Labs Innovation: Physicists Celebrate Telstar Satellite's "50th" - NJ Arts News - NewsWorks
The beginning of modern communications: 50 years ago, the first tele-communications satell...
published: 08 Aug 2012
Author: NewJerseyArtsNews
Bell Labs Innovation: Physicists Celebrate Telstar Satellite's "50th" - NJ Arts News - NewsWorks
The beginning of modern communications: 50 years ago, the first tele-communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral into orbit, relaying TV and phone signals between the US and Europe. 'Telstar' was designed and built at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. Scientists Walter Brown, Lou Lanzerotti, Carol Maclennan, and Tod Sizer recount the excitement and cross-disciplinary culture of innovation at Bell Labs. Bell Labs Headquarters, Murray Hill, NJ, July 10, 2012.
3:50
Telstar 50th Anniversary Reunites Innovators at Bell Labs
The beginning of modern communications: 50 years ago, the first tele-communications satell...
published: 24 Jul 2012
Author: NewJerseyArtsNews
Telstar 50th Anniversary Reunites Innovators at Bell Labs
The beginning of modern communications: 50 years ago, the first tele-communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral into orbit, relaying TV and phone signals between the US and Europe. 'Telstar' was designed and built at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. Scientists Walter Brown, Lou Lanzerotti, Carol Maclennan, and Tod Sizer recount the excitement and cross-disciplinary culture of innovation at Bell Labs. Bell Labs Headquarters, Murray Hill, NJ, July 10, 2012.
6:17
The Spirit of Invention - Bell Labs - CBS Sunday Morning - 3-25-12
Martha Teichner guides us through the remarkable history of Bell Labs, the birthplace for ...
published: 07 Apr 2012
Author: RightSightings
The Spirit of Invention - Bell Labs - CBS Sunday Morning - 3-25-12
Martha Teichner guides us through the remarkable history of Bell Labs, the birthplace for countless electronic wonders, from the transistor to the laser to the digital camera.
53:26
AT&T; Archives: Live From Bell Labs (1992)
To see more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This edition of "Li...
published: 25 Apr 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
AT&T; Archives: Live From Bell Labs (1992)
To see more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This edition of "Live from AT&T's Bell Laboratories!" was co-hosted by David Heil from PBS' Newton's Apple series and Bell Labs' VP of Research (and Nobel Prize winner) Arno Penzias. It took place on April 29, 1992. This special program grew in scope between 1991 and 1992, with a live "studio audience" (in a Bell Labs auditorium) of hundreds of kids, and a live 2-way satellite Q&A connect with Wisconsin and Texas middle-school students. It was also broadcast worldwide via Armed Forces Television. Though it wasn't aired live, the program was broadcast on PBS during the same week it was taped. Specials include a photophone demonstration - 1870s technology explained - leading into how fiber optics communications originated with this antique concept invented by Alexander Graham Bell. They also take some students to visit a new Telstar satellite as it is tested, and perform some experiments in Bell Labs' famous anechoic chamber. One of the most impressive science demonstrations is a "global message relay", basically sending email around the globe. Only they're not actually using the public email/internet we're used to today, they used the AT&T Learning Network, a message service that connected 35000 students around the world on a closed network. Created for National Science and Technology Week, an event hosted by the National Science Foundation. Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
16:36
The Ways Computers Shaped Bell Labs in the 1960s - AT&T; Archives
Watch more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Introduction by George Kupcza...
published: 14 Jun 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
The Ways Computers Shaped Bell Labs in the 1960s - AT&T; Archives
Watch more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Introduction by George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center "The Incredible Machine" is a 1968 short showing some of the ways that Bell Laboratories scientists used computers in communications research. Contains sequences of computer-generated movies, photographs, music and speech. The entire score and main title and credits of the film were produced on a computer - which seems like nothing today, as every film and video in modern production makes its way through a machine - but at the time this was radically early for computer graphics and music. Bell Labs was responsible for a few computer graphics and music firsts: 1961: computer performs "Daisy Bell" with music programmed by Max Mathews and speech programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum. This was later the inspiration for the computer "HAL" singing the song in the movie 2001. Daisy Bell was also the nickname of one of Alexander Graham Bell's daughters. 1962: The first digital computer art was created at Bell Labs by A. Michael Noll. 1963: The first computer graphics film was created by Edward Zajac. 1963: The first computer animation language, BEFLIX, was created by Ken Knowlton. 1966: first ASCII art, created by Ken Knowlton. These scientist/artists worked on IBM 704 and 7094 computers in the 1950s and 1960s. They had drastic limitations in terms of computing power and costs, compared to the computers of today. For example: IBM 704 The computer <b>...</b>
6:20
Abandoned Bell Laboratories US Army Research Facility - Monmouth County, NJ
Joe Palaia Park, en.wikipedia.org , located in Monmouth County, NJ. A US Army Signals Corp...
published: 09 Sep 2011
Author: TheUnknownCameraman
Abandoned Bell Laboratories US Army Research Facility - Monmouth County, NJ
Joe Palaia Park, en.wikipedia.org , located in Monmouth County, NJ. A US Army Signals Corp research facility is claimed to be the first US government installation to detect and record signals from Sputnik-1 in 1957. Some infrastructure of the center still remain at the site. The land, originally purchased in 1919 by AT&T or Bell Laboratories (who also developed the Nike line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system), was used for research, engineering experiments, testing radio waves and more. In 1953, the test site was sold by AT&T, and the new owners leased the property to the US Army Signal Corps for tracking Russian satellites. I believe it was some time in the 1970s that the site became inactive, and left pretty much as it is today. Boarded up and abandoned....
27:27
AT&T; Archives: The UNIX Operating System
Watch new AT&T Archive films every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at techchannel.att.com...
published: 22 Feb 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
AT&T; Archives: The UNIX Operating System
Watch new AT&T Archive films every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at techchannel.att.com In the late 1960s, Bell Laboratories computer scientists Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson started work on a project that was inspired by an operating system called Multics, a joint project of MIT, GE, and Bell Labs. The host and narrator of this film, Victor Vyssotsky, also had worked on the Multics project. Ritchie and Thompson, recognizing some of the problems with the Multics OS, set out to create a more useful, flexible, and portable system for programmers to work with. What's fascinating about the growth of UNIX is the long amount of time that it was given to develop, almost organically, and based on the needs of the users and programmers. The first installation of the program was done as late as 1972 (on a NY Telephone branch computer). It was in conjunction with the refinement of the C programming language, principally designed by Dennis Ritchie. Because the Bell System had limitations placed by the government that prevented them from selling software, UNIX was made available under license to universities and the government. This helped further its development, as well as making it a more "open" system. This film "The UNIX System: Making Computers More Productive", is one of two that Bell Labs made in 1982 about UNIX's significance, impact and usability. Even 10 years after its first installation, it's still an introduction to the system. The other film, "The UNIX System: Making <b>...</b>
28:03
AT&T; Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com On an elementary conceptual...
published: 03 Apr 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
AT&T; Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com On an elementary conceptual level, this film reflects the multifaceted scientific hyperthinking that was typical of a Bell Labs approach. Host Dr. JN Shive's presence as a lecturer is excellent - it's understandable by a layperson even when he branches into equations, because he uses copious amounts of real-world examples to bolster the material. Shive's role at Bell Labs was more than just a great lecturer: he worked on early transistor technology, inventing the phototransistor in 1950, and the machine he uses in the film is his invention, now called the Shive Wave Machine in college classrooms. Dr. JN Shive of Bell Labs demonstrates and discusses the following aspects of wave behavior: Reflection of waves from free and clamped ends Superposition Standing waves and resonance Energy loss by impedance mismatching Reduction of energy loss by quarter-wave and tapered-section transformers Original audience: college students Produced at Bell Labs Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
14:24
Project Echo: "The Big Bounce" 1960 Bell Laboratories Mylar Balloon Satellite
more at scitech.quickfound.net "The story of the Echo communications satellite projec...
published: 13 Dec 2011
Author: webdev17
Project Echo: "The Big Bounce" 1960 Bell Laboratories Mylar Balloon Satellite
more at scitech.quickfound.net "The story of the Echo communications satellite project, and how scientists learned to bounce a radio signal off a big balloon." Public domain film with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, and equalization. see also NASA TN D-1127 "PARTICIPATION OF BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES IN PROJECT ECHO AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS" ntrs.nasa.gov en.wikipedia.org Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft was a metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off of them from one point on Earth to another. Echo 1 NASA's Echo 1 satellite was built by Gilmore Schjeldahl's GT Schjeldahl Company in Northfield, Minnesota. The balloon satellite functioned as a reflector, not a transmitter, so that after it was placed in a low Earth orbit, a signal would be sent to it, reflected or bounced off of its surface, and then returned to Earth. Following the failure of the Delta rocket carrying Echo 1 on May 13, 1960, Echo 1A (commonly referred to as just Echo 1) was put successfully into a 944 to 1048 mi orbit by another Thor-Delta and a microwave transmission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California was received at Bell Laboratories in Homdel, New Jersey on August 12, 1960. The 30.5-meter (100 ft) diameter balloon <b>...</b>
2:19
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Explain UNIX (Bell Labs)
Segment from an AT&T Bell Labs (BTL) promotional film (circa 1980s) featuring UNIX cre...
published: 11 Apr 2011
Author: VortexTech
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Explain UNIX (Bell Labs)
Segment from an AT&T Bell Labs (BTL) promotional film (circa 1980s) featuring UNIX creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie briefly explaining the UNIX environment. In cameo roles you'll see UNIX luminaries Greg Chesson (in the wine red shirt) and Doug McIlroy (to the foreground of Greg). Also featured is a classic ASR-33 Teletype, BLIT displays (developed by Rob Pike, then of the Labs as well), and much more.
8:02
Missile Guidance: "A Missile Named Mac" circa 1962 Bell Labs
more at scitech.quickfound.net Animated film "A Missile Named Mac" explains basi...
published: 26 Dec 2011
Author: webdev17
Missile Guidance: "A Missile Named Mac" circa 1962 Bell Labs
more at scitech.quickfound.net Animated film "A Missile Named Mac" explains basics of missile guidance systems developed by Bell Laboratories. Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization. en.wikipedia.org Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its "Single Shot Kill Probability" (SSKP), which is part of combat survivability calculations associated with salvo combat model. These guidance technologies can generally be divided up into a number of categories, with the broadest categories being "active," "passive" and "preset" guidance. Missiles and guided bombs generally use similar types of guidance system, the difference between the two being that missiles are powered by an onboard engine, whereas guided bombs rely on the speed and height of the launch aircraft for propulsion... Guidance systems are divided into different categories according to what type of target they are designed for - either fixed targets or moving targets. The weapons can be divided into two broad categories, Go-Onto-Target (GOT) and Go-Onto-Location-in-Space <b>...</b>
16:52
The Genesis of the Transistor, with Bonus Introduction - AT&T; Archives
See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Bonus Edition introduction by G...
published: 19 Jul 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
The Genesis of the Transistor, with Bonus Introduction - AT&T; Archives
See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Bonus Edition introduction by George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center In the late 1940s, Bell Laboratories scientists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor, the first solid-state amplifier or switch, and in doing so laid the foundation for all modern electronics and circuitry. The three shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for the achievement. It may be the most important invention of the 20th century. This 1965 film shows footage of them reunited/recreating their 1940s lab time to show how it was done, but in real life they had parted. Bardeen had left the labs in 1951 for the U. of IL; Shockley in 1956 to run a semiconductor company in California (laying the groundwork for Silicon Valley), and Brattain retired in 1967 to Whitman College. Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
Youtube results:
15:37
The L6 Programming Language, Rendered in Stunning Early Computer Graphics
See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Bell Laboratories has been know...
published: 07 Aug 2012
Author: ATTTechChannel
The L6 Programming Language, Rendered in Stunning Early Computer Graphics
See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com Bell Laboratories has been known for nurturing the production of various computer languages, from the general (B, C and UNIX) to the specific, like this one described in this film, "(Bell) Laboratories' Low Level Linked List Language" (or "L6" for short). This film is part I, which describes the language, created by computer scientist Ken Knowlton. (Part II contained an example of a program written in L6, and is twice as long.) According to Knowlton, the advantage of L6 was that it permitted "the user to get much closer to machine code in order to write faster-running programs, to use storage more efficiently and to build a wider variety of linked data structures." Besides L6, Knowlton also authored the programming language BEFLIX for computer graphics, and EXPLOR, which was designed for artists, among others. (Note: The L6 films were made using the BEFLIX language.) Knowlton worked at Bell Labs from 1962 to 1982. He also appears in Incredible Machine, a film from 1968 about computer communications explorations at Bell Labs. Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
6:21
The Voder - Homer Dudley (Bell Labs) 1939
The Voder by Homer Dudley (Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey) was the f...
published: 10 Jul 2011
Author: MonoThyratron
The Voder - Homer Dudley (Bell Labs) 1939
The Voder by Homer Dudley (Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey) was the first device that could generate continuous human speech electronically. The flowing composition of the many speech sounds had to be done manually in realtime on a special keyboard shown in this video. In 1939, Alden P. Armagnac wrote in "Popular Science" about this speaking device: "He hasn't any mouth, lungs, or larynx—but he talks a blue streak. His name is Pedro the Voder, and you may see him in action at the New York and San Francisco world's fairs. His creation from vacuum tubes and electrical circuits, by Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers, crowns centuries of effort to duplicate the human voice. To manufacture Pedro's conversation, his operator employs a keyboard like that of an old-fashioned parlor organ. Thirteen black and white keys, fingered one or more at a time, produce all the vowels and consonants of speech. Another key regulates the loudness of the synthetic voice, which comes from a loudspeaker. A foot pedal varies the inflection meanwhile, so that the same sentence may state a fact or ask a question. About a year's practice enables an operator to make Pedro talk glibly." And the "Time" wrote on January 16th, 1939: "The Bell Telephone demonstrators took pains to make it clear that Voder does not reproduce speech, like a telephone receiver or loudspeaker. It originates speech at the touch of an operator, synthesizing sounds to form words. The men who built it were <b>...</b>
9:54
Eero Saarinen - Bell Laboratories Holmdel - Early Videos (1/3)
Early videos produced at Bell Labs provided by James Canham, Facility Manager '84 - &#...
published: 21 Jun 2009
Author: ricArchitect
Eero Saarinen - Bell Laboratories Holmdel - Early Videos (1/3)
Early videos produced at Bell Labs provided by James Canham, Facility Manager '84 - '01. Thank you James.
6:58
Bell Labs Holmdel Redevelopment - When the Past Becomes the Future - John Boyd - Bell Labs
I have been focused recently in the potential redevelopment of a historic building. He'...
published: 17 Mar 2012
Author: NovelistJohnBoyd
Bell Labs Holmdel Redevelopment - When the Past Becomes the Future - John Boyd - Bell Labs
I have been focused recently in the potential redevelopment of a historic building. He's a partner in a project management firm that has been tasked to find the highest and best use for the once vibrant facility and surrounding property. The facility I'm talking about is the former Bell Laboratory Facility in Holmdel, New Jersey. Before I go into my story I thought a history lesson is in order. Bell Labs Before it's Closing in 2007. Today it is an empty facility with more than 1.7 million square feet of space under roof; sitting in the middle of over 472 acres of land in one of the more desirable locations in New Jersey to live. Pretty interesting history I thought. When we were asked to investigate and prepare reports on its highest best use, I put on my engineering and project developer hat and began studying every piece of information we could come up with. For the last month I along with our staff have been learning as much as possible about the facility and Holmdel. We are impressed on both professional and personal levels and soon will be unveiling our findings and thoughts on the highest and best use of the property as we have been contracted to do. The Past Becomes the Future I won't give any clues at this juncture of our recommendations but will instead tell you of a kind of metamorphosis of sorts. People that know me know that I have an "out of the box" thinking mentality and even though I have an engineering background I look past the obvious and norm. That <b>...</b>
