So Shockley began to think about using a type of material known as the semiconductor, which partly conducted and partly resisted electric current it also sometimes acted as a rectifier that would allow current to move in only one direction.

Shockley was inspired by a talk given by the Bell Labs research director, Mervin Kelly, who wanted to find a way to invent electronic switches and amplifiers that could replace the relay switches and vacuum tubes that underlay the telephone exchanges. It included William Shockley, who was an intense theoretician, and Walter Brattain, who was a verbose experimentalist. Among those groups was one that discussed the latest advances in solid-state physics, an emerging field that analyzed the conductivity and other properties of different materials in relation to their atomic structures. During the 1930s it was the site for many lectures, scientific visits (Einstein dropped by) and informal study groups. 1, 1925, and was originally based on West Street in Lower Manhattan. They occur when people of diverse talents and mind-sets and expertise are brought together, preferably in close physical proximity where they can have frequent meetings and serendipitous encounters.īell Labs was created on Jan. But more important, “The Idea Factory” explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation? Why does it happen, and how might we nurture it? The lesson of Bell Labs is that most feats of sustained innovation cannot and do not occur in an iconic garage or the workshop of an ingenious inventor. Jon Gertner, an editor at Fast Company magazine, has produced a well-researched history of Bell Labs, filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons. Jointly owned by AT&T and its affiliated equipment maker, Western Electric, Bell Labs went on to invent the transistor and make major contributions to the field of lasers and cellular telephony.

Thus was the seed planted for a new collaborative industrial organization - teaming up theoreticians, experimentalists, material scientists, metallurgists, engineers and even telephone pole climbers - that eventually became Bell Labs. They needed, among other things, to create a repeater or amplifier for the electric signals so that they would not attenuate after a few miles. The problem was one that required not just engineering skill but advances in pure science. In 1909, top executives at AT&T decided to commit themselves to a challenge: building a transcontinental phone line that could connect a call between New York and San Francisco.

The idea factory book