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In 1927 Alexander Grahm Bell hired engineers to improve the American Telegraph and Telphone Company (AT&T) phones and the network used to connect phones. These engineers would go on to continue their research and development at the newly formed Bell-Labs.
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During this time period, Bell-Labs was owned and operated by Bell-Telephones until the company was broken up.
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In 1927 Herbert Ives and his team at Bell-Labs successfully transmitted a 128-line from Washington to New York. The audience for this demonstration was president-to-be, Herbert Hoover; who at the time was the Secretary of Commerce.
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Having been tasked with rooting out the cause of static interference in long-distance transmission of shortwave radios, Karl Jansky discovered the interference was coming from outer space. Eventually, this led Jansky to discover that it was coming from the center of our galaxy.
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Russel Ohl created the first photovoltaic cell while working at Bell-Labs in the early 1940s. This technology is what is used in solar panels and has allowed everything from power generation to exploration of different planets.
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This innovation was crucial for the Allies to win World War II and allowed for secure communications. This project was also worked on by Alan Turing, the famous computer scientist from England who created the first computer.
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Originally developed to replace dated vacuum tubes, the transistor would prove to be the most ground-breaking and revolutionary creations to come from Bell-Labs. This semiconductor device is what enables all modern computers and phones to function and has had the most profound impact on our society.
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In 1958 Bell Lab researchers used light amplification by stimulating radiation to create the first laser. This would mark the beginning of many achievements in working with lasers for Bell-Labs.
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In 1959 Dawon Kahng and Martin Atalla created the first metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor. This is a special type of transistor used for high-speed switching and that has lower power requirements. These devices are used in most, if not all, modern electronics
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The laser that was created had revolutionary accuracy and color clarity for the time. This would led to further development of a C02 powered laser by Kumar Patel.
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Using a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-7, Ken Thompson wrote UNIX in assembler. This led to Ken and some of his colleagues to develop the programming language "B" which would go on to become "C" in 1973 (C and its variants are some of the most popular programming languages).
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The name was changed after Bell was broken up and the lab became AT&T Bell Laboratories.
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In 1990 Seiji Ogawa and team were able to utilize magnetic resonice imaging for being able to see someone's brain (and any possible damage or abnormalities) in a non-invasive way.
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In 1996 AT&T formed Lucent Technologies which absorbed Bell-Labs and hardware from AT&T
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Nokia bought what was now Alcatel-Lucent in a 16.6 billion dollar deal. This would result in the lab once again being renamed to Nokia Bell Labs. This is the current name of the labs as of 2020.
