bell labs and the great age of american innovation

Gertner tells this complex and fascinating story by focusing on a handful of Bell Labs scientists and managers who played a central role in the labs’ major innovations and accomplishments. In addition to the transistor and Information Theory, its scientists developed lasers, the first silicon solar cells and the first active communications satellite.īell Labs’ accomplishments also include advances in computer languages and in computer-generated speech, ideas on how to build a cellular phone system and the development of a device that forms the basis for all digital photography. Located first in lower Manhattan and later on a sprawling site in Murray Hill, N.J., Bell Labs attracted some of the country’s most brilliant minds, including William Shockley, one of the inventors of the transistor, and Claude Shannon, a soft-spoken eccentric who liked to unicycle down the halls of Bell Labs while juggling and who is credited with developing Information Theory, the basis of digital communication.ĭuring the greater part of the 20th century, an amazing array of innovations came from Bell Labs. Established in the 1920s by AT&T at a time when the telephone company operated as a government-endorsed monopoly, Bell Labs was charged with inventing the future of telecommunications. In its heyday, Bell Labs was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory in the world. Corporations, entrepreneurs and research institutions tout its value as they seek to generate new knowledge, products and services.īut where does innovation come from? And how can we make it integral to our organizations? Journalist Jon Gertner offers some fascinating insights into these questions in “The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.”

In many respects, “innovation” is the buzzword of the 21st century.

Bell labs and the great age of american innovation