THE IDEA FACTORY

The Bell Telephone (AT&T) research laboratory at Murray Hill in New Jersey opened in 1942.  It was largely the brain-child of Mervin Kelly, who was instrumental in creating a “factory for ideas.”  Kelly was charged with designing and testing telephony equipment for the domestic US and international markets.  John Gertner’s excellent book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, describes both the process and achievements of the labs, and the personalities of the engineers involved.

 

Kelly purposefully designed a building around a 700’ long internal hallway.  This design forced engineers to come out of their offices and walk.  En route to lunch, for example, they would encounter other engineers, thereby fostering contact, engagement and communication.  The laboratories and offices of individual researchers were deliberately separated within the building, promoting further contacts.  Collaboration between departments and colleagues was mandated by the management.  If a colleague from a different department to yours came and asked for information or advice, you had to help.  Obstruction and non-cooperation were strenuously discouraged.

 

Gertner describes succinctly the physics that underpinned the products and processes that the Bell engineers were developing.  Mervin Kelly’s unorthodox factory design and working procedures helped to produce many of the products which are fundamental to communication in the 21^st Century.  This included seminal work on transistors, microwave and digital transmission systems, the development of optical fibers, lasers, cellular telephones and much more.  Throughout his very readable text, Gertner makes a very good case that the complex mental processes involved in a field such as theoretical physics, can be managed and stimulated  by encouraging communication to flourish.