The idea factory : Bell Labs and the great age of American innovation /
Gertner, Jon,author.
In this first full portrait of the legendary Bell Labs, journalist Jon Gertner takes readers behind one of the greatest collaborations between business and science in history. Officially the research and development wing of AT&T, Bell Labs made seminal breakthroughs from the 1920s to the 1980s in everything from lasers to cellular telephony, becoming arguably the best laboratory for new ideas in the world. Gertner's riveting narrative traces the intersections between science, business, and society that allowed a cadre of eccentric geniuses to lay the foundations of the information age, offering lessons in management and innovation that are as vital today as they were a generation ago. -- Publisher description
Originally published: New York, Penguin Press, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Wicked problems -- Oil drops -- West to East -- System -- War -- Solid state -- House of magic -- The informationist -- Man and machines -- Formula -- Silicon -- Empire -- An instigator -- On Crawford Hill -- Futures, real and imagined -- Mistakes -- Competition -- Apart -- Afterlives -- Inheritance -- Echoes.
In this first full portrait of the legendary Bell Labs, journalist Jon Gertner takes readers behind one of the greatest collaborations between business and science in history. Officially the research and development wing of AT&T, Bell Labs made seminal breakthroughs from the 1920s to the 1980s in everything from lasers to cellular telephony, becoming arguably the best laboratory for new ideas in the world. Gertner's riveting narrative traces the intersections between science, business, and society that allowed a cadre of eccentric geniuses to lay the foundations of the information age, offering lessons in management and innovation that are as vital today as they were a generation ago. -- Publisher description
Bell Telephone Laboratories
Telecommunication
Technological innovations
Creative ability
Inventors