Milestone-Proposal:Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., 1925-1983

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Docket #:2012-05

This is a draft proposal, that has not yet been submitted. To submit this proposal, click on "Edit with form", check the "Submit this proposal for review" box at the bottom, and save the page.

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s fields of interest? (e.g. “the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences” – from the IEEE Constitution) Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an Electrical Engineering Milestone? Yes

Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1925-1984

Title of the proposed milestone:

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., the First 60 Years, 1925-1984

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

Bell Telephone Laboratories has made innovations to telecommunications and related fields that led to the digital era, including information theory, systems engineering, digital signal processing, digital transmission and switching, lightwave communication, cellular systems, the transistor, solar cells, CCD, integrated circuit technology, MBE, CO2 laser, communication satellites, first transatlantic telephone cable, touch-tone dialing, direct distance dialing, foil electret microphone, UNIX, C language, and digital compression of voice, music, and video.

In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

North Jersey

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: IEEE North Jersey Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: IEEE North Jersey Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: IEEE North Jersey
IEEE Section Chair name: Section chair name masked to public

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Proposer's name masked to public
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need.

In the lobby of the Hall of Innovation museum adjacent to the lobby of Building 6, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, 600 Mountain Vae, Murray Hill, NJ

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Details of the plaque mounting:

In the entrance hall lobby

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

The Alcatel-Lucent Bell labs 6 lobby and the Hall of Innovation have security protection. The building lobby is accessible to the public at the milestone dedication ceremony and during business hours according to Alcatel-Lucent building security procedures.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs

A letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property:

A letter or email from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application:

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

References to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article.

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.