Telephone research began in 1876 in the Boston attic where Alexander
Graham Bell carried on his first successful experiments on the “electric
speaking telephone.” From Bell’s modest beginning has evolved the Bell
Telephone Laboratories of today, where over 9,000 scientists, engineers,
technicians and auxiliary personnel constantly seek ways to improve
telephone service, widen its usefulness, and keep its cost low.
Some members of the Laboratories are engaged in _basic research_. They
explore the physical sciences—physics, mathematics, chemistry—seeking
basic knowledge that may contribute to better communications.
_Fundamental development_ is the second step in the chain leading toward
manufacture and use. In the third step, groups engaged in _systems
engineering_ plan how the new knowledge and discoveries of research can
be used to create new facilities for telephone service, improve service,
or reduce costs. Final step is the specific _development_ and _design_
of new systems or products. This involves the construction of laboratory
models, trial models, service tests, and preparations for mass
production.
This description is, of course, a highly simplified account of the work
of the Laboratories. The broad functions of research and development
constantly merge. At all times there must be close co-operation among
various groups in the Laboratories, between the Laboratories and the
telephone companies, where models are tried out, and between the
Laboratories and Western Electric, where products are manufactured.
Here is just one example of the way research and development have
extended telephony, improved it, and reduced its cost:
Many years ago, the use of a pair of wires instead of a single, grounded
wire greatly improved transmission and made it possible to talk longer
distances. This increased the demand for service but also increased the
number of wires strung on telephone poles. The large number of wires on
towering poles along city streets began to cast shadows of doubt on the
prospects for further growth. Compact cables had to be developed and a
way found to run them underground. Years of painstaking study and trial
accomplished this. Now some exchange cables contain as many as 2,121
pairs of wire.
This cable evolution illustrates the dollar value of telephone research
and development. The standard cable of 1888 contained 50 pairs of wires
and its installed cost was more than $150 per pair-mile. In 1954,
despite rising costs, underground cable cost in the order of $20 per
pair-mile in place, and much of it was 2,121-pair.