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[Scott Holtzman]

One of the many things I take pleasure in is placing technology in historical perspective.  While we think of things as new often times they are new applications for existing technology.  Much of the work we do is refinement rather than discovery.

I was reading through the archives of Bell Labs and came upon this article.  The author was trying to improve digital filters for MODEM's.  and important task in 1979 when 1200 baud was ripping fast. 

What is being discussed is an implementation of what we now call FIR filters.  Excellent examples of cumulative delay are given.

I thought some of you may enjoy the read:

https://archive.org/stream/bstj58-2-301#page/n0/mode/2up

[John Roberts {JR}]

Bell labs is where a lot of milestone technology was pioneered (Guys like Shannon and Schafer, and.....) Those were the good old days.

JR

[Scott Holtzman]

Bell labs is where a lot of milestone technology was pioneered (Guys like Shannon and Schafer, and.....) Those were the good old days.

JR

Claude Shannon and Harry Nyquist defined the fundamentals of information transmission before digital computers existed.

The North American Digital Hierarchy that formed the TDM PCM telephone network was designed in the 50's based on these principles.

[Ivan Beaver]

Bell labs is where a lot of milestone technology was pioneered (Guys like Shannon and Schafer, and.....) Those were the good old days.

JR

Yeah-back when companies were allowed to make a decent profit, they could have whole sections (bell labs) where engineers could just "think" and not have the pressure to produce products.

A LOT of innovations in our industry came out of Bell labs.  So many things we take for granted today.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Yeah-back when companies were allowed to make a decent profit, they could have whole sections (bell labs) where engineers could just "think" and not have the pressure to produce products.

A LOT of innovations in our industry came out of Bell labs.  So many things we take for granted today.

Bell was broken up for anti-trust reasons. Some of the baby bell companies reassembled but completely different industry today.

JR

[Hayden J. Nebus]

Oh, the irony!

I grew up in Monmouth County NJ. The local shed, once called the Garden State Arts Center, was built in Bell Labs backyard.

The best HOW service calls usually involved some combination of mangled graphics and piss poor gain structure that was done with the best of intentions, but invariably involved the proud hack work of a volunteer who was AN ENGINEER AT BELL LABS!

[John Roberts {JR}]

Oh, the irony!

I grew up in Monmouth County NJ. The local shed, once called the Garden State Arts Center, was built in Bell Labs backyard.

The best HOW service calls usually involved some combination of mangled graphics and piss poor gain structure that was done with the best of intentions, but invariably involved the proud hack work of a volunteer who was AN ENGINEER AT BELL LABS!

Maybe you could have gone to the labs and straightened them out. 

JR

[Hayden J. Nebus]

Maybe you could have gone to the labs and straightened them out. 

JR

Could have straightened out their graphic EQs at least.

[Scott Holtzman]

Could have straightened out their graphic EQs at least.

Geez between Whippany and Murray Hill there were over 10k engineers in the hayday.   Maybe all didn't get audio.  Or maybe this was after the great Lucent "flaming asshole" transition.

Anyway if you worked in an engineering role @ BL prior to the MFJ that's pretty fucking awesome in my book.

[Steve M Smith]

Yeah-back when companies were allowed to make a decent profit, they could have whole sections (bell labs) where engineers could just "think" and not have the pressure to produce products.

Some companies also had departments which seemed to have nothing to do with their business model.

e.g. One of Britain's great audio designers and authors, particularly in the hi-fi field (including class A amplifiers and various filters) was John Linsley-Hood who worked in the research department of British Cellophane Ltd.


Steve.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Geez between Whippany and Murray Hill there were over 10k engineers in the hayday.   Maybe all didn't get audio.  Or maybe this was after the great Lucent "flaming asshole" transition.

Anyway if you worked in an engineering role @ BL prior to the MFJ that's pretty fucking awesome in my book.

My dad was an engineer for Western Electric who were partners with AT&T in Bell Labs.

I thought it was pretty awesome but he died in the 50's before I even knew good questions to ask him. I have some of his old engineering texts and notebooks... mostly mundane stuff we take for granted (like wow and flutter, etc).

JR

[Scott Holtzman]

My dad was an engineer for Western Electric who were partners with AT&T in Bell Labs.

I thought it was pretty awesome but he died in the 50's before I even knew good questions to ask him. I have some of his old engineering texts and notebooks... mostly mundane stuff we take for granted (like wow and flutter, etc).

JR

Interesting, since WECO was a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell my history and memorabilia collection extends to WECO gear also.  Anything with the company logo on it, Engineer's Notebooks, Service Pins (and watches), Company Swag, Branded Tools - I am very interested.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Interesting, since WECO was a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell my history and memorabilia collection extends to WECO gear also.  Anything with the company logo on it, Engineer's Notebooks, Service Pins (and watches), Company Swag, Branded Tools - I am very interested.

Sorry I don't have any belt buckles or coffee mugs.

The engineering notebooks are from ERPI, western electric's recording division. My dad is on a table of organization for ERPI dated 1929...   

Later he worked at Vitaphone the joint venture with Warner Brothers to make sound movies. 

His last gig was as a recording engineer for RCA records (in NYC). I actually went into the studio with him one saturday morning, but I was just a young puke so don't remember much. I do recall the family getting a case of wine from Perry Como one christmas.

JR

PS: I found one engineering document from Victor Talking Machine company.

[Rob Spence]

Geez between Whippany and Murray Hill there were over 10k engineers in the hayday.   Maybe all didn't get audio.  Or maybe this was after the great Lucent "flaming asshole" transition.

Anyway if you worked in an engineering role @ BL prior to the MFJ that's pretty fucking awesome in my book.

I worked in Whippany from 1970-73 in the recording systems division. I was a tech. We built a 200 track drum unit with a 4 second rotation. We switched tracks to build phrases and sentences. Fun days.



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[Scott Holtzman]

I worked in Whippany from 1970-73 in the recording systems division. I was a tech. We built a 200 track drum unit with a 4 second rotation. We switched tracks to build phrases and sentences. Fun days.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I knew this Rob so I think we have gone down this discussion path before.  I miss the active Pioneers chapter we used to have in Cleveland.  My wife has indulged me to visit several museums.  i was installing an early Cisco Frame/IP switch at 51 Peachtree in Atlanta as a contractor in the 90's.  A few floors up they were pulling out the last of the  stepXstep framing and power.  It took some beer and cash but the 3rd shift crew let me go dumpster diving.   I am looking for a decent 55x cordboard for my lobby!

[John Roberts {JR}]

I worked in Whippany from 1970-73 in the recording systems division. I was a tech. We built a 200 track drum unit with a 4 second rotation. We switched tracks to build phrases and sentences. Fun days.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Actually that may have been part of the technology used for splicing together samples...  Were those drum recording media? Moving head spliced together LF and HF content better based on wavelength... as the head approached HF response got better so splices were less clicky.

In the early '70s I worked with electronic pitch shifting and bell labs was known for some advanced (rotating head) stuff. 

JR

[Rob Spence]

Actually that may have been part of the technology used for splicing together samples...  Were those drum recording media? Moving head spliced together LF and HF content better based on wavelength... as the head approached HF response got better so splices were less clicky.

In the early '70s I worked with electronic pitch shifting and bell labs was known for some advanced (rotating head) stuff. 

JR

My boss got a patent on click-less head switching. I still have the original 4 track switching module prototype I built.



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[John Roberts {JR}]

My boss got a patent on click-less head switching. I still have the original 4 track switching module prototype I built.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

small world....

JR

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