Archives:IEEE History Center Book Publishing

HISTORY CENTER BOOK PUBLISHING

As part of its mission to bring the history of technology to a wide audience, the IEEE History Center has been busy with a number of publishing initiatives. The Center is proud to unveil Bell Labs Memoirs: Voices of Innovation which will be available in both hard cover and Kindle® editions from www.amazon.com in November 2011, and US Federal Government & Innovation, available now as an e-book to download from IEEE-USA’s Today’s Engineer store. https://salaryapp.ieeeusa.org/rt/salary_database/shop?&main.ctrl=contentmgr.detail&main.view=ecom.content.detail&main.id=77111&top.title=The+US+Federal+Government+and+Innovation+-+A+Brief+History

BELL LABS MEMOIRS: VOICES OF INNOVATION The innovative spirit and creative energy of Bell Labs during the directorship of William Baker are described by twelve people who worked there. Through the first-hand accounts of: John Pierce, father of communications satellites; Manfred Shroeder, speech encoding; Walter Brown, developer of silicon semiconductors; Carol Maclennan, computers and the Ulysses spacecraft; Alan Chynoweth, materials research, David Dorsi, expert glassblower; Edward Zajac, submarine cables and economics research; Edwin Chandross, optical memories and organic materials (inventor of the now ubiquitous light stick); Italo Quinto, chauffer to William Baker; Mohan Sondhi, inventor of the adaptive echo canceller; William Keefauver, Bell Labs’ general patent attorney; and lastly, William Baker himself, the culture of Bell Labs comes to life. The research done at Bell Labs led to many devices and techniques that helped build our present world. Acoustic cameras, adaptive predictive coding, block diagram compilers, cryptography, diamond crystal research, digital communication, echo research, inverse filtering, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), magnetic bubble memories, microwaves, organic field effect transistors, pulse code modulation, synthetic speech, transistors, traveling-wave tubes, and vocoders are among the topics recalled by the contributors to this book. Available November 2011 from http://www.amazon.com

US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & INNOVATION: A BRIEF HISTORY PUBLISHED AS E-BOOK The IEEE History Center is proud to announce the publication of an electronic book, US Government & Innovation: A Brief History in conjunction with IEEE-USA’s magazine Today’s Engineer. The book outlines the history of U.S. government involvement in technological innovation, which dates from the 1790s. The U.S. Government’s fostering of technologies such as the Morse telegraph, Hollerith’s punched-card machines, radio, radar, ENIAC and successor computers, semiconductors, and lithium batteries is described. As the debate continues about the role of government in research, the staff of the IEEE History Center hopes that this book will illuminate the discussion, and bring some of the rich history to light. U.S. Federal Government & Innovation: A Brief History can be purchased for download at: Member Price is $4.79. Non-member price is $5.99. https://salaryapp.ieeeusa.org/rt/salary_database/shop?&main.ctrl=contentmgr.detail&main.view=ecom.content.detail&main.id=77111&top.title=The+US+Federal+Government+and+Innovation+-+A+Brief+History

The IEEE History Center is preparing a second e-book on the history of telecommunications which should be available via Today’s Engineer’s shop in late November.