Definition: Bell Labs

The research and development center of Alcatel-Lucent, formerly Lucent Technologies and AT&T. One of the most renowned scientific laboratories in the world, many of the major electronic inventions of the modern age were developed at Bell Labs, including the transistor, the laser, solar cell, wavelength optical multiplexing (see DWDM), the Unix operating system and the C programming language.

In 2015, Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent and Bell Labs officially became Nokia Bell Labs. See transistor and laser.

The Real Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland in 1847 and died in 1922. His famous sentence "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you!" were the first words to travel over a wire, ringing in the birth of electronic communications. (Image courtesy of AT&T.)