A Visit to Bell Labs Museum Murray Hill, NJ
December 18, 2018
The Bell Labs museum (officially called the Nokia Bell Labs Technology Showcase) is located in the old A.T.&T. Murray Hill research facility (now owned by Nokia). This museum chronicles a century of scientific and engineering achievements. The exhibit highlights foundational breakthroughs that shaped modern technology, featuring historic artifacts such as the original point-contact transistor prototype, early MOSFET and CCD sensors, and displays detailing the development of Information Theory, UNIX, lasers, and fiber optics. It celebrates a research culture that has produced 10 Nobel Prizes and fundamental technological innovations.
Below are photos showing examples of the exhibits. The last few photos are some "behind-the-scenes" pictures of the Bell Labs anechoic chamber and audio research room, which are not generally available to the public.
Click on the photos below to enlarge.
Murray Hill Main Entrance
Bell Labs' Murray Hill campus opened in 1941, designed by Stephen F. Voorhees, and hosted the 1947 invention of the transistor.
Prototype Helium-Neon Laser
In December 1960, Bell Labs physicist Ali Javan built the first gas laser, a helium-neon device producing a continuous beam.
Vitaphone Sound Movie Camera
Bell Labs developed the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in the 1920s, bringing synchronized sound to early Warner Bros. talkies.
The First Transistor
On December 16, 1947, Bardeen and Brattain tested Bell Labs' first working transistor, replacing bulky, power-hungry vacuum tubes.
Anechoic Absorption Close-Up
The chamber's wedge absorbers, about 4.5 feet long, use an impedance-matching shape borrowed from waveguide design.
Bell Labs Messenger Bikes
At a leading-edge technology company, a rack of old-style message bikes seemed out of place to route mail across campus.
Near-Field Scanning Microscope
Bell Labs' Eric Betzig advanced the near-field scanning optical microscope in the early 1990s, imaging past the diffraction limit.
Touch-Tone Telephone
Bell Labs' 1964 Touch-Tone telephone replaced rotary dials with push-buttons and electronic tones for signaling.
First Transistor Close-Up
Brattain's 1947 transistor wrapped gold foil over a plastic triangle, its sliced tip pressed into a germanium crystal.
Anechoic Chamber Floor
Visitors cross the anechoic chamber on a suspended wire-mesh floor, walking above the wedge absorbers lining the room below.
Telegraph Sounder And Key
Bell Labs' history exhibit traces communications back to Samuel Morse's mid-1800s electric telegraph and sounder.
Electron Diffraction Tube
In 1927, Bell Labs scientists Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer used this apparatus to prove electrons behave as waves.
Wireless Two-Way Radio
In 1916, Western Electric used vacuum tubes for the first ship-to-shore radiotelephony test aboard the USS New Hampshire.
Audio Testing Room
Built in the 1990s, Bell Labs' Varechoic Chamber uses 368 panels to reprogram the room's acoustic reverberation live.
Anechoic Chamber Wall Detail
Bell Labs' anechoic chamber once held a Guinness World Record as the world's quietest room, used for loudness research.