Bell Labs Memoirs: Voices of Innovation

I have hard copy edition. But it is nice to be able to read kindle edition for my eyesight.

Having lived and worked during era that this book discusses, I found this book to be excellent.Too bad the America that Bell Labs helped to develop, turned around and destroyed Bell Labs. Effyew Judge Greene.

Thoroughly enjoyable read! Learned a lot about Bell Labs through the eyes of its employees and gained a deeper appreciation of the history of the technological achievements which enable me to lead my life today.

Those of us who experienced the Bell Telephone Laboratories first hand, know why it was preeminent in the worlds of science and engineering.Those who did not, can read this memoir and understand why they are correct.

I thought this book would provide a lot of insight or anecdotes about the labs when it was the center of the electronics universe. It does not. Some of the stories are reprints and some of the stories, while well written and complimentary, are about rather ordinary people who did the drudge work at the labs.

I like industrial history but only found the Bell Labs Memoir's, well, just interesting. Each chapter was the verbal recount of a particular employee and they related a lot of interesting information about how Bell Labs came to be and how it developed into one of the great industrial labs of modern times. But there was a disconnect as each new person threw a different manner, voice, story, and style into the mix. I found it disruptive to the contextual flow. The facts were interesting but the flow was disjointed. The individual stories were good and...interesting.

As an old Bell System alumnus, I found this book entrancing. Lots of history here.

By putting together interviews and biographical information from various people picked from the Bell Labs personnel (scientist, manager, car driver, lab technician and so on), the author helps us understand the very peculiar atmosphere and close-knit network that reigned in the glory days of Bell Labs. Using this approach from the inside, it provides a smart way to explain how innovation is carried in an ideal way, which was just the norm at Bell Labs for a number of years.