Bell Telephone Laboratories - The Future Holds Great Promise
August 1949 Popular Science

August 1949 Popular Science [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Science, published 1872-2021. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

If you remember watching movies and television shows up through the 1970s or so, you have probably seen scenes (see what I did there?) where someone struggled desperately to place and keep connected telephone calls to, from, or within foreign countries (outside the U.S., that is). Our Bell Telephone Company was well known and respected for the widespread, reliable, and quality network it built out across the land. A continual effort to improve the system while containing costs to make telephony affordable to most people is what did the job. Beginning with manually (or more accurately, womanually) operated switchboards, then graduating to automated electromechanical circuit switching centers, it eventually evolved to the computer controlled and optimized solid state networking circuits of today. Unlike the multitude of telecommunications companies today, Bell really had no competition, so government oversight combined with the company's desire to invoke good will amongst its customers helped keep things in check. Self-promotions like this full-page 1949 Popular Science magazine appearance were common.

Bell Telephone Laboratories Ad

The Future Holds Great Promise

Neither chance nor mere good fortune has brought this nation the finest telephone service in the world. The service Americans enjoy in such abundance is directly the product of their own imagination, enterprise and common sense.

The people of America have put billions of dollars of their savings into building their telephone system. They have learned more and more ways to use the telephone to advantage, and have continuously encouraged invention and initiative to find new paths toward new horizons.

They have made the rendering of telephone service a public trust; at the same time, they have given the telephone companies, under regulation, the freedom and resources they must have to do their job as well as possible.

In this climate of freedom and responsibility, the Bell System has provided service of steadily increasing value to more and more people. Our policy, often stated, is to give the best possible service at the lowest cost consistent with financial safety and fair treatment of employees. We are organized as we are in order to carry that policy out.

Bell Telephone Laboratories lead the world in improving communication device§ and techniques.

Western Electric Company provides the Bell operating companies with telephone equipment of the highest quality at reasonable prices, and can always be counted on in emergencies to deliver the goods whenever and wherever needed.

The operating telephone companies and the parent company work together so that improvements in one place may spread quickly to others. Because all units of the System have the same service goals, great benefits flow to the public.

Similarly, the financial good health of the Bell System over a period of many years has been to the advantage of the public no less than the stockholders and employees.

It is equally essential and in the public interest that telephone rates and earnings now and in the future be adequate to continue to pay good wages, protect the billions of dollars of savings invested in the System, and attract the new capital needed to meet the service opportunities and responsibilities ahead.

There is a tremendous amount of work to be done in the near future and the System's technical and human resources to do it have never been better. Our physical equipment is the best in history, though still heavily loaded, and we have many new and improved facilities to incorporate in the plant. Employees are competent and courteous. The long-standing Bell System policy of making promotions from the ranks assures the continuing vigor of the organization.

With these assets, with the traditional spirit of service to get the message through, and with confidence that the American people understand the need for maintaining on a sound financial basis the essential public services performed by the Bell System, we look forward to providing a service better and more valuable in the future than at any time in the past. We pledge our utmost efforts to that end.

Leroy A. Wilson, President American Telephone and Telegraph Company. (From the 1948 Annual Report.)

Bell Telephone Laboratories

Exploring and inventing, devising and perfecting, for continued improvements and economies in telephone service

Posted April 11, 2024