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Industrial Research and the Pursuit of Corporate Security: The Early Years of Bell Labs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Leonard S. Reich
Leonard S. Reich
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Rutgers University
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Abstract

Among the industries that owe their existence to technological innovation, voice communication by wire and by radio is an outstanding example. Professor Reich explains that during its first quarter century, however, the telephone enterprise developed a “business-technology mind-set” (he credits Reese Jenkins with the term) that held back further progress until after the thoroughgoing reorganization of American Telephone & Telegraph in 1907. Thereafter, an initial strong focus on applied science was gradually modified as the company sought to solve problems that stood in the way of important new services, such as long-distance telephony; to stay in the vanguard of major innovations, such as radio, that threatened the dominance of wired telephone systems; and to extend new capabilities into as many alternative techniques as necessary to “box the compass” of the patent laws. In the process, AT&T developed a highly structured research and development facility that pushed businessmen's respect for science and technology to new heights.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 54 , Issue 4: Business History and the History of Technology , Winter 1980 , pp. 504 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1980

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References

1 There have been a number of historical works of value on industrial research in recent years. Some of the best are Beer, John, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry (Urbana, Ill., 1959)Google Scholar; Birr, Kendall, Pioneering in Industrial Research: The Story of the General Electric Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C., 1957)Google Scholar; Noble, David F., America By Design: Science, Technology and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism (New York, 1977).Google Scholar Also see appropriate chapters in Hughes, Thomas, Elmer Sperry, Inventor and Engineer (Baltimore, 1971)Google Scholar; Morison, Elting E., From Know-How to Nowhere (New York, 1974)Google Scholar; Jenkins, Reese, Images and Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry 1839 to 1925 (Baltimore, 1975).Google Scholar

2 Reich, Leonard S., “Research, Patents, and the Struggle to Control Radio: Big Business and the Uses of Industrial Research,” Business History Review, 51 (Summer, 1977), 230–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See, for example, J. J. Carty, “Science and Business,” National Research Council Reprint, No. 55 (1924).Google Scholar

4 Federal Communications Commission, Investigation of the Telephone Industry (Washington, D.C., 1939), 183.Google Scholar

5 For example, in 1891 the company established a separate “Engineers Department” to carry part of the load (such as “Conduit Plans” and “Toll Traffic Studies”); and by 1895 the organization included a small, three-man, “Experimental Department.” Doherty, W.H., “Early Corporate History,” in Fagan, M.D., ed., A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: The Early Years (1875–1925) (Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1975), 40–41.Google Scholar

6 Federal Communications Commission Investigation Pursuant to Public Resolution #8, 74th Congress, Docket #1, Exhibit #1951A, p. 47. (This is an FCC investigation of the Bell System undertaken in 1934 and published in seventy-seven volumes. Copies are available at the FCC Library at 1919 M St., N.W., Washington, D.C. A condensed, one-volume report was issued in 1938, then revised and reissued in 1939; see footnotes #7 and #4).

7 Brooks, John, Telephone: The First Hundred Years (New York, 1975), 105Google Scholar; Doherty, W.H., The Bell System and the People Who Made It (Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1968), 12.Google Scholar The discoverer and promoter of the dual-wire principle was J.J. Carty. Rhodes, Frederick, John J. Carty (New York, 1932), 32–33, 42–43Google Scholar; Federal Communications Commission, Proposed Report: The Telephone Investigation (Washington, D.C., 1938), 206.Google Scholar

8 Doherty, “Early Corporate History,” 42; FCC Investigation, Exhibit #2112, p. 105.

9 This is not to suggest that the Bell System encountered little competition during this period — it did — but that when patent infringement suits were brought, Bell almost always took the role of plaintiff. See Brooks, Telephone, 102–114.

10 FCC, Investigation of the Telephone Industry, 185; Doherty, “Early Corporate History,” 44.

11 Archer, Gleason L., History of Radio to 1926 (New York, 1938), 82–86.Google Scholar

12 Quoted in Lloyd Espenschied Papers, Division of Electricity and Nuclear Energy, Smithsonian Institution (hereafter Espenschied MSS), Box 14, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “Genesis of Electronic Carrier and Radio, 1912–16,” March 26, 1954, p. 3. Espenschied was a laboratory engineer who, toward the end of his career, became interested in the history of research in the Bell System. With an eye for significant facts and a commitment to presenting the full story, Espenschied spent the years before and after his retirement examining company documents, communicating with former colleagues, and setting down the history of AT&T research as he saw it.

13 Carty even assigned engineers in the laboratory to attend appropriate professional meetings and report developments back to him. See Espenschied, “Genesis of Electronic Carrier and Radio,” 8–9.

14 Brooks, Telephone, 127–135.

15 Brooks, Telephone, 137–138; Rhodes, Carty, 69.

16 Brittain, James, “The Introduction of the Loading Coil: George A. Campbell and Michael I. Pupin,” Technology and Culture, vol. 11 (1970), 36–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Doherty, The Bell System, 12.

17 FCC, Investigation of the Telephone Industry, 189–190. Used in appropriate circuits, an electronic repeater would be able to generate the high-frequency continuous waves needed for the transmission of voice and music (as opposed to dots and dashes).

18 FCC Investigation, Exhibit #1951A, pp. 133–134.

19 With an undergraduate degree in engineering from Throop Institute of Technology, Jewett always maintained an engineer's eye for application. See Buckley, Oliver, “Frank B. Jewett,” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, vol. 27 (1952), 240–246.Google Scholar

20 FCC Investigation, Exhibit #1951A, pp. 133–134.

21 H. D. Arnold, United States Patents (hereafter Pats.) 1, 118, 172 (applied for 1912; granted 1914) [hereafter (1912/1914)]; 1, 118, 173 (1912/1914); 1, 118, 174 (1912/1914); 1, 118, 175 (1912/1914); J.W. Emling, “Telephone Transmission — The Wire Plant,” in M.D. Fagan, ed., History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, 258.

22 Equity Suit No. 589, 598 (1926), District Court of the United States, Delaware. General Electric Company v. De Forest Radio Company, Printed Record of Final Hearing, Vol. I, 409, 554, 561.

23 Espenschied MSS, Box 5, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “Some Early Bell Laboratory Milestones in the Development of the Vacuum Tube,” January 5, 1945, p. 4.

24 Letter, Jewett to T. D. Lockwood, AT&T patent attorney, December 27, 1912; letter, Lockwood to Carty, February 17, 1913; Arnold's comments on Lockwood-to-Carty letter, dated February 26, 1913. Letters referenced in Espenschied MSS, Box 5, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “Progress in Understanding the Audion,” July 19, 1948, p. 3.

25 De Forest later claimed that he did not know to whom he sold the rights, that the intermediary who purchased them gave his “word of a gentleman” that they would not go to AT&T. Archer, History of Radio, 107–109; Carneal, Georgia, A Conquerer of Space (New York, 1930), 257.Google Scholar

26 Edwin Colpitts, “1915 Radio Telephone Tests Over Transoceanic Distances,” January 27, 1939, unpub. MS at the AT&T Historical Library, 195 Broadway, New York City, p. 3; Raymond A. Heising, “1915 Arlington Radio Experiments,” ca. 1937, unpub. MS in vol. 5 of the Paul Watson Collection, Division of Electricity and Nuclear Energy, Smithsonian Institution, p. 1.

27 Rhodes, Carty, 79–80.

28 For a discussion of line and staff administrative positions see Chandler, Alfred D., Strategy and Structure (Boston, 1962).Google Scholar

29 Brooks, Telephone, 130.

30 One researcher spoke of “the almost military conduct attitude which began with J.J. Carty and ran down through the organization …. The ‘boss’ was promised what he wanted and heaven and earth were torn up to give it to him.” Carl Englund, “1915 Radio Transmissions,” ca. 1935, unpub. MS at the AT&T Historical Library, 195 Broadway, New York City, p. 10.

31 Quoted in Rhodes, Carty, 82.

32 Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 18. The assistant, George Campbell, served as “a scientific ‘wet nurse’” to Carty according to Lloyd Espenschied. Espenschied MSS, Box 14, unpub. MS entitled “G. A. Campbell, His Inventive Contributions: The Wave Filter,” April 2, 1954, p. 1.

33 Doherty, “Early Corporate History,” 50–51 (Figure 2–11).

34 Espenschied MSS, Box 8, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “The Telephone Company's Early Record,” September 17, 1962, pp. 4–5.

35 R.V.L. Hartley, Laboratory Notebook #202, p. 179 (May 9, 1919), Bell Telephone Laboratories Archives, Murray Hill, New Jersey (hereafter BTLA). One researcher noted he had been hired in 1914 “when Dr. F.B. Jewett made a trip to the University of Wisconsin on a man hunt.” Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 1.

36 Englund, “1915 Transmission,” 5.

37 For example, a report issued in 1911 stated: “As a result of extensive development work during the past two years we have developed a new telephone repeater [which] should be extensively employed.” The report referred to the mercury-vapor tube, not the audion! Quoted in Espenschied MSS, Box 8, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “Period of Rapid Invention, 1900–1915,” June 17, 1952, p. 4.

38 Western Electric Engineering Department, “1914 Annual Report,” BTLA, p. D.

39 Ibid., 21.

40 Letter, Jewett to Colpitts, December 24, 1913, quoted in Espenschied MSS, Box 8, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “First Voices Overseas,” August 7, 1962, p. 5; letter, R. H. Wilson to Colpitts, November 11, 1922, quoted in FCC Investigation, Exhibit #243, Appendix 7, p. 1.

41 Espenschied MSS, Box 18, unpub. Espenschied MS entitled “The Budding and Blossoming of Multiplex, Wide-Band, Electronic Communications,” p. 6.

42 Letter, R.H. Wilson to Colpitts, November 11, 1922, p. 1.

43 Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 9–10; Englund, “1915 Radio Transmission,” 24–25.

44 Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 12.

45 Craft, E.B. and Colpitts, E.H., “Radio Telephony,” A.I.E.E. Trans., vol. 38 (1919), 313Google Scholar; Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 12–14; Englund, “1915 Transmission,” 11.

46 Espenschied MSS, Box 17, letter, Espenschied to Edward L. Bowles, July 2, 1952, p. 5.

47 Espenschied MSS, Box 32, letter, George Campbell to Espenschied, May 4, 1950.

48 FCC Investigation, Exhibit #2112, p. 2.

49 Ibid.

50 For example, R.A. Heising applied for three patents on modulating circuits within one year, one of which he acknowledged to be a minor modification of that of another AT&T researcher. See Heising, R.A., “Modulation in Radiotelephony,” Institute of Radio Engineers Proc., vol. 9 (1921), 316.Google Scholar

51 For example, Jewett told engineer Carl Englund in 1914 that the laboratory was at work on an electronic repeater but would give no details. Englund, “1915 Transmission,” 28; R.A. Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 1.

52 Englund, “1915 Transmission,” 28–29.

53 Letter from C. J. Davisson to his wife, August 24, 1918, quoted in Geherenbeck, Richard, Davisson, Germer and the Discovery of Electron Diffraction (Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1973), 28.Google Scholar

54 Electrical World, October 9, 1915, p. 790. Emphasis added.

55 H.W. Nichols Pat. 1, 325, 574 (1915/19); J. Carson Pat. 1, 309, 459 (1915/19).

56 Espenschied MSS, Box 8, unpub. MS entitled “Advent of Electronic Telephony.”

57 Espenschied MSS, Box 7, letter, RA. Heising to Espenschied, November 29, 1962, p. 3. Emphasis added.

58 Engineering Department, “1916 Annual Report,” 34. Emphasis added.

59 Ibid.

60 E.F.W. Alexanderson, Pats. 1, 501, 830 (1914/24); 1, 501, 831 (1916/24). The alternator produced radio-frequency “carrier” waves.

61 H.D. Arnold, Pat. 1, 375, 481 (1915/21); H. J. van der Bijl, Pat. 1, 301, 525 (1915/19); R. A. Heising, Pats. 1, 341, 211 (1915/20); 1, 383, 807 (1915/21). Application dates were August 23, 25, 30, and September 21, 1915.

62 This latter increase took place at a time when the total personnel in the Engineering Department actually declined: from 1,217 in 1914, to 1,165 in 1915. Engineering Department, “1915 Annual Report,” 4.

63 These figures probably do not include vacuum tube research expenses. “Discussion of the Development Expense on Radio Incurred by the Bell System,” AT&T Historical Library, Notebook C3, Section 1, Chart labeled “Grand Summary.”

64 Jewett, Frank, “John J. Carty,” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, vol. 18 (1937), 78–79.Google Scholar

65 J. McKeen Cattell, ed., American Men of Science (3rd edition, 1921); Jewett, “Carty,” 80; Heising, “1915 Experiments,” 5.

66 Cattell, ed., American Men of Science (1921); Wilson, William, “Harold D. Arnold,” Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 21 (1935), 32Google Scholar; Rhodes, “Carty,” 162; see, for example, Carty, J.J., “Science and Business,” National Research Council Reprint, No. 55 (1924).Google Scholar

67 Doherty, W.H., “The Spirit of Research,” in Fagan, M.D., ed., A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, 917Google Scholar; Wilson, William, “A New Type of High Power Vacuum Tube,” Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 1 (1922), 5–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Geherenbeck, Davisson, Germer, 52.

68 Jewett, Frank, “Industrial Research with Some Notes Concerning its Scope in the Bell System,” A.I.E.E. Trans., vol. 36 (1917), 854.Google Scholar See R.V.L. Hartley, Laboratory Notebook #202, p. 146 (December 23, 1918), BTLA.

69 FCC Investigation, Exhibit #243, Appendix 7, sheet 2; FCC, Investigation of the Telephone Industry, 191n.

70 “Discussion of Expense on Radio,” Section 1, Chart labeled “Grand Summary.”

71 FCC Investigation, Exhibit #50, p. 64.

72 Brooks, Telephone, 102–126.

73 Brooks, Telephone, 132–137. AT&T actually made a formal statement of intent in 1913 to cease aggressive tactics. This was known as the “Kingsbury Commitment.”

74 The words are T.N. Vail's, quoted in FCC Investigation, Exhibit #2112, p. 20. As long as all of the patents that the company had to deal with were “little” ones, there was no reason for concern; enough patent rights could be procured by AT&T that the remaining few would have little value, either to AT&T or to their holders.

75 Jenkins, Reese, Images and Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry, 1839–1925 (Baltimore, 1975), 5.Google Scholar

76 The photographic industry, for example, underwent several such dislocations until corporate management took steps to ensure that future technological developments with disruptive capabilities originated within the leading industrial establishments. See the author's review of Jenkins' book in Business History Review, 50 (Autumn, 1976), 389–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 Jenkins, Images and Enterprise, 300–306.

78 Brooks, Telephone, 120–124, 141. For Vail's strongly positive attitude toward industrial research, see Vail, T.N., “Relations of Science to Industry,” National Research Council Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 1 (1919).Google Scholar

79 Reich, “Research, Patents, and the Struggle to Control Radio.”