Customer Reviews

Three Degrees Above Zero

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The book paints an impressionistic picture of AT&T Bell Labs (pre-breakup), as viewed through the stories of several key players in its illustrious history. Written more as a family portrait than a strict history per se, the author successfully captures the flavour and the culture of this remarkable American R & D institution. Having been written in the shadow of the AT&T breakup, there is an undercurrent of concern over changing a proven winner throughout the book. Managers of any R & D organization would do well to read this and see how closely they can emulate this example.

in the spirit of "dealers of lightning", 3 degrees above zero tours a large corporate research laboratory with skill and clarity. by focusing on achievements and people, it navigates the large labs and really highlights interesting topics.

i'm a geek, but no engineer. however, i really found the writing to be clean and move along at a good pace. by talking to people who what got them into research, how they got to their topics, and why they do what they do, it's a fascinating look at a bright collection of minds and people.

written at the time that the labs were about to be spun off, everyone ends a chapter with comments on what they think will happen next. definitely interesting given the historical perspective you can now apply.

hunt this one down, i think you'll be pleased.

I was told of this book when I started in Bell Labs as an R&D engineer, just as AT&T was spinning off Lucent. Not only did this give a great history lesson of where I was working, and what monumental accomplishments were achieved in the "Crystal Palace" but it was also another "break-up."

So take aways that I still remember from reading this:
1) The Big Bang was found at lunch hour. What did you do during lunch today?
2) The photo-voltaic solar cell was found by accident after inventing the transistor.
3) A tech left a soldering iron on, and burned down part of a mid-town NY exchange, resulting in having to route calls from downtown to uptown via San Francisco.
And so on.

The revelations are truly staggering.
I recently start working with an old co-worker from the labs, and have started reading this book.
It's clearly written, and accurately captures a bygone time of American ingenuity. And for the nerds out there, you'll get to find out what the acronym RADAR means and what it does.