
Bell System Technical Journal, 1922-1983 - wglb
http://alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/
======
greenyoda
For those who like to read about the old Bell System, there's a great book
called _Engineering and Operations in the Bell System_ that gives an overview
of the technology that was in use up to around the time of their breakup in
1984. It was published by Bell Labs. You can find used copies on Amazon for as
little as 1 cent (plus the cost of shipping).

~~~
zw123456
Yes! I have an original copy that was given to me in 1978 when I went to work
for Bell Labs. A lot of today's technology has it's roots in the early work
done at the labs.

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benmaraschino
It's got Claude Shannon's "A Mathematical Theory of Communication":

(warning, large PDF files)

Parts I-II: [http://alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol27-1948/articles/bstj27-3-...](http://alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol27-1948/articles/bstj27-3-379.pdf)

Parts III-V: [http://alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol27-1948/articles/bstj27-4-...](http://alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol27-1948/articles/bstj27-4-623.pdf)

Cool!

~~~
dredmorbius
Trivium: a friend on G+ shared with me a story about having a Geniac kit as a
kid -- an educational "computer" sold from 1955 through the 1960s by Edmund
Berkeley. Included with was a copy of Claude Shannon's "A Symbolic Analysis of
Relay and Switching Circuits".

For a kid's game.

Contrast that with today's "deep analysis" articles in which VirtualBox VMs
are referred to as "Russian dolls" (to reference an earlier comment of mine).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniac)

~~~
tomrod
I see no inconsistency. Few people in the 1950s would have purchased such a
game, despite its novelty.

Personally, I'd love a copy.

This being said, the concept of a virtual machine fits pretty well within the
idea of a Russian doll.

~~~
dredmorbius
There was a period of unabashed embrace of technology in the wake of WWII.
Much of that had to do with the advances and successes of technology during
the war: radar, missiles, the first jet aircraft, penicillin, and of course,
the atom bomb.

Vannevar Bush was commissioned by FDR to write a proposal for a national
scientific research initiative, which appeared as _Science, the Endless
Frontier_. This ultimately replaced the wartime Office of Scientific Research
and Development with the National Science Foundation (following some not-
atypical politicking and hurdles).

The mood began to change in the 1960s with opposition to nuclear testing, the
appearance of Rachel Carson's _Silent Spring_ , concerns over pollution,
overpopulation, and limits to growth, the emergence of the environmental
movement, and other reactions to the earlier spirit of scientific,
technological, and industrial progress.

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rwmj
A whole series of articles introducing UNIX:

[http://alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol57-1978/bstj-
vol57-issue06...](http://alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol57-1978/bstj-
vol57-issue06.html)

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edkademan
This is a great resource but not perfect. Is there anything we can do to alert
the curators to problems with the collection? For example, Walter Shewart's
paper on the "Nature and Origins of Standards of Quality" appears on pages 1
through 22 of Volume 37, Issue 1, January 1958, but pages 4 through 15 are
missing.

I tried contacting Alcatel-Lucent about this some time ago without success.

~~~
smutticus
I'm actually interested in that article as well and have tried finding the
complete version. If you ever succeed please let me know. So far I also have
not found the complete version.

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jesuslop
Thanks for the reminder! Unix, blue box papers, Shannon theory, switch
blueprints, nice lore.

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wyclif
Funny, I used to have the '81—'83 issues...

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dang
Previous discussions may be of interest:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1802293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1802293)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2420084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2420084)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4687277](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4687277)

