By Michael Noll
The 100th birthday of Bell Labs is January 1, 2025. Should we celebrate and applaud, or should we mourn the loss of an R&D national treasure? Tribute or eulogy?
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. — known as Bell Labs – originally was headquartered at 463 W. Street in Manhattan on New Years Day, 1925. In 1941, it initiated a gradual move to what would become its sprawling complex on Mountain Avenue in Murray Hill, New Jersey. More buildings were added over ensuing years, including a pyramid-like, exterior structure that seemed to embrace the older original buildings with their copper roofs.
Since its formation, “BTL” performed the research and development for the Bell System, which then provided efficient and affordable telecommunication service for the United States.
The transistor, automated switching, coaxial cable, stereophonic audio, speech compression, information theory, cellular radio concept, and polyethylene cable sheathing are examples of some of the innovations from Bell Labs. The discovery of chemiluminescence, which is the basis for light sticks, was made at Bell Labs.
Bell Labs was essentially a national R&D facility, making its discoveries available to all – and continuing the innovation tradition of the past Thomas Alva Edison research laboratory.
But Bell System was dissolved on Jan. 1, 1984, and Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. ceased to exist.
Attempts were made to continue it in other forms. An AT&T Bell Laboratories, Inc. and a Bell Communications research, Inc. (nicknamed Bellcore) were created. In 1996, AT&T Bell Labs split to become Bell Laboratories (as a division of Lucent Technologies, Inc.) and AT&T Laboratories (as a division of AT&T).
An international journey followed.
Alcatel, the French telecom, acquired Lucent in 2006, and what was called Bell Labs became a division of Alcatel-Lucent. Then, in 2016, the Finnish telecommunication company Nokia purchased Alcatel-Lucent, and a Nokia Bell Labs appeared and remains today. But Nokia Bell Labs clearly does not have the mission and history of the original Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. of 1925. Along the convoluted history, an Avaya Labs and an Agere Systems, Inc. were created. Meanwhile, the Swedish telecommunication firm Ericsson ultimately acquired Bellcore in 2012.
Yet with all the progenies, mergers, and acquisitions, does any one entity have exclusive claim to the legacy of Bell Labs?
It might be claimed that occupying the Murray Hill site is a strong factor. But some years ago, Lucent-Bell Labs tore down many wings of the original buildings to save on taxes (sadly, the wing I worked in is now gone). Nokia Bell Labs, which occupies the Murray Hill site, has announced that it will move to New Brunswick. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. has been long gone – and soon, so will the legendary Murray Hill site.
But whatever the convoluted and tortured history of Bell Telephone Laboratories, January 1, 2025 is indeed its 100th birthday.
As an appropriate birthday gift, I suggest that the Arnold Auditorium, archives, and some sort of public museum be carved from the Murray Hill site and be given to the public. The first invention state was New Jersey, and that deserves more attention and public education.
“Bell Labs” seems to have become just a name that can be acquired by some new owner who then cloaks itself in its identity. What is called AT&T today is Southwestern Bell — rebranded itself as AT&T — with no resemblance to the AT&T of the past that owned Bell Labs and the Bell System. The various companies that owned Bell Labs have similarly cloaked themselves under the Bell Labs name, but bear no resemblance to the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. of the past.
The factors that made Bell Labs unique and influential are not possible anymore. These factors were secure and stable funding from the Bell monopoly, a long-term view, freedom to take chances and perhaps even fail, management that rose through the organization, closeness to practical problems, and a broad mission to assure the future of telecommunication in the United States.
The current emphasis on short-term profits makes these factors impossible today. That is why there no longer can be a “Bell Labs of 1925.”
Yes, this is a eulogy – a memorial — to a great R&D facility of the past that brought us all much closer through today’s telecommunication world of satellites, optical fiber, wireless, digital, and automated switching. Just the same, Happy Birthday, BTL.
Dr. A. Michael Noll has written books, papers, and articles about Bell Labs and its key people. He was employed as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs in Murray Hill starting in 1961, and is currently professor emeritus of communications at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.
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