-
First Synchronized Sound Movie
After a demonstration at Bell Labs, attended by Sam Warner, The Warner Brothers worked with Bell Labs to obtain the necessary equipment to produce the first movie with synchronized song called the "Jazz Singer" which was a huge success (Hutchinson). Here is a clip from the movie -
First Transcontinental Call
As the expiration for the patents on the telephone were coming to a close near the turn of the century, Theodore Vail and other experts at the company devised a way for a long-distance call to be made from New York to San Fransisco (Isaacson p. 132-133). The historic event included a recreation of the famous first telephone conversation between Bell and Watson but this time across the country. This push for innovation sparked the fire that became Bell Research Laboratories. -
Nobel Prize Awarded to Clinton Davisson and George Paget Thomson For Discovery of Electron Diffraction
Clinton Davisson a Bell Labs Researcher, along with George Paget, made the discovery of electron diffraction (NobelPrize.org). This work leads to advancements in solid-state electronics and which was the basis for the development of the transistor (Isaacson ch. 4). -
The Complex Number Calculator
The Complex Number Calculator was developed at Bell Labs by a team lead by George Stibitz. This represented a huge advancement in calculating machines, as this calculator was "blindingly fast compared to the mechanical calculators" (Isaacson p.50). It also showed the potential for a circuit of relays to "do binary math, process information, and handle logical procedures" (p. 50). -
Contributions to the War Effort
In the first few years following the United States entrance into WWI after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bell Labs took on many projects to support the war effort. These included a variety of projects from, "tanks radio sets to communications systems for pilots wearing oxygen masks to enciphering machines for scrambling secret messages." (Isaacson p. 138). -
The Transistor
The transistor was invented at Bell Labs by Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley (Isaacson p. 144). The innovation came as a result of years of theorizing, experimentation, and collaboration which finally paid off in 1947 when it worked. The transistor is known as one of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century and paved the way for many more advancements in computer technology which made more efficient computers possible. -
"Maser" Laser
Arthur L Shawlow and Charles H. Townes, two Bell Labs researchers, developed a device that helped researchers study molecular structures more closely. Of this process, Schawlow said, "I was beginning to think seriously about the possibility of extending the maser principle from the microwave region to shorter wavelengths, such as the infrared region of the spectrum. It turned out that he was also thinking about this problem, so we decided to look at the problem together.” ("Innovation Stories"). -
Development of C Computer Programming Language
C Computer programming language was developed by Bell Lab employees Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson for minicomputers with limited memory storage which occurred simultaneously with early iterations of the UNIX operating system (Britannica). It went on to be a very successful and popular programming language, especially after 1980 due to its ability to allow users to access to lower-level operations when needed (Ceruzzi, Seng p. 13). -
First Song Played on a Computer
1957 was the year when the first program was written to synthesize music via a computer. It was called MUSIC and was written by Max Matthews at the acoustics and behavioral research department of Bell Labs (Haven). This was later referenced when Steve Dombier wrote a program years later to play the same song on the Altair for the Homebrew Computer Club (Levy, ch. 10). Here is what a later version of the song Daisy Bell sounded like on the computer. -
First Communications Satellite
With NASA, Bell Labs developed and launched the first communications satellite, made possible by many inventions and innovations made by researchers at Bell Labs, from Cape Canaveral ("Innovation Stories"). -
Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Bell Lab scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered cosmic microwave background radiation by accident when attempting to eliminate extra noise so as to hear radio waves from Echo balloon satellites. It was evidence for the big bang theory as sound detected from outside the galaxy. This discovery won them a Nobel Prize. (("Innovation Stories")). Listen Here -
UNIX
Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson developed the operating system UNIX while at Bell Laboratories. Because it was written in C programming language, it was a tool that could be used by many universities and companies who had computers that has a C compiler and as such had an extremely beneficial effect on the history of computers (Ceruzzi, Seng p. 74) -
Charged Coupled Device and Digital Imaging Sensors
While at Bell Labs, George Smith Willard Boyle invented the Charge-Couple Device (CCD) which was later developed for imaging applications at Bell Labs in the 70's ("Innovation Stories"). The CCD and the later work in imaging sensors have had a significant impact on technology which is still evident today from TV Cameras to all of our personal devices. -
C++
C++, an extension of C programming language, was also developed at Bell Labs. Its creator was Bjarne Stroustrup, who began working there in 1979 ("Innovation Stories"). C++ earned him many awards and went on to influence future programming languages by its significant impact and become a very popular language that is still used today ("Innovation Stories"). -
Speech-Driven Robot
In 1989, Bell Labs Introduces a speech-driven robot named SAM, for Speech-Actuated Manipulator, which could understand, "1041 semantically meaningful naturally spoken English language sentences using a vocabulary of about 200 words" (Brown, Buntschuh, Wilpon).
