Since its birth in 1925, Bell Laboratory has won 9 Nobel Prize , 5 Turing Prize , and more than 30,000 patents.
, once glorious Bell Laboratory, is a place that has changed the fate of mankind many times, and is also one of the greatest laboratories of the 20th century, the cradle of modern technology. transistor , C language , UNIX operating system, solar cell , communication satellite , etc. were born here, and these inventions have been used to this day.
Past glory
Bell Labs was named Alexander Graham Bell . The inventor of the phone. After he obtained the patent for the telephone, Bell founded Bell Telephone Company, which is the predecessor of AT&T. On January 1, 1925, AT&T acquired the research department of Western Electronics and established an independent entity called "Bell Telephone Laboratory Company", which was later renamed "Bell Laboratory".
Alexander Graham Bell
1927, Clinton Davidson and Rest Gemo of Bell Laboratory discovered the offset of electrons, thus verifying the volatility of electrons ;
1933, Bell Laboratory discovered that the Galaxy Center was continuously emitting radio waves, thus creating radio astronomy ;
1943, Bell Laboratory developed SIGSALY The concept of voice security system, digital communication was born, which is another milestone in the history of communication system development;
1947, the Bell Laboratory trio ( John Barding , William Shawley, Walt Hausher Bratton) jointly invented the transistor and won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics . The invention of the transistor marks the official entry of human beings into the electronic information age , which can be said to be the most important invention of Bell Labs to human society;
Transistor
1948, Shannon published "Mathematical Principles of Communication", laying the foundation of modern information theory, and information theory is the theoretical foundation of communication technology;
Shannon
1954 In 1998, the world's first transistor computer, (TRADIC), was born in Bell Labs, and modern computers began; in the same year, Bell Labs also invented the first solar cell;
1962, the first communication satellite Telstar1 developed by Bell Labs was officially put into use, real-time broadcast of transatlantic television;
1964, cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered;
1969, Ken Thompson developed the UNIX system on a small computer, opening the door to modern computer operating systems, and later 1973 1. Dennis Leach developed the C language. In 1980, Bell Labs developed C language into C++, pushing C to a higher level;
Dennis Leach and Ken Tomp
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At its peak, Bell Labs had tens of thousands of engineers, holding various advanced technology patents, and was at the forefront of technology. After the peak of
, it is a trough.
is heading for decline
The unlimited Bell Labs ushered in a turning point in the 1980s and began to decline. is because of capital intervention; the other is because of split.
htmlIn the 1980s, Wall Street Capital began to intervene in Bell Labs. The intervention of capital made Bell Labs no longer a pure world of research, and what capital pursued was returns. Before, AT&T was rich in financial resources and could give Bell Lab a large amount of scientific research funds every year. Scientists in Bell Labs do not need to worry about the pressure from the outside world. They just need to focus on research and can constantly try and make mistakes. Even if they fail, they can research again. Now, Wall Street Capital has introduced performance appraisal, and they need to complete the set KPI. Scientific research is a long-term process and may not be successful in the short term.What's worse is that in 1984, the US Department of Justice split AT&T under the Antitrust Act, thus interrupting the long-term monopoly of the US telecom industry. Bell Labs was also divided into two. Lucent obtained the name of Bell Labs and half of scientific research resources. AT&T inherited the other half of the laboratory to form AT&T Laboratory.
Compared with AT&T, Lucent's value has been reduced by more than a little bit. The laboratory's scientific research funding is seriously insufficient, so it can only continuously reduce personnel. This obviously cannot stop loss. In 2006, Bell Labs was acquired by Alcatel , and the Bell Labs building was sold in 2008. In 2016, Nokia acquired Alcatel Lucent, and Bell Labs has also been transferred to Nokia several times. At this time, Bell Laboratories had already died in name only.
The influence of Bell Labs continues. Many Nobel Prize winners have come out of Bell Labs, and Bell Labs is therefore called the "cradle of Nobel Prize ".
What do you think is the main reason for the decline of Bell Labs?
