[GreenKeys] Bell Labs - True Innovation

[Larry Tighe]

Bell Labs was a monument to a government sanctioned monopoly.  ATT was a 
legal monopoly and had to dump as much money as they could.  Thence to write 
it off against profits.  The labs were just one dumping place.

T'was a time your hands would sweat as you picked up the receiver of your 
302 to dial long distance....Long Distance Please.  You knew you were going 
to get whacked with the montly bill.  Pay extra for an extension phone, or 
for the coil cord on the handset.  How about the colour of the phone.....an 
extra bell for the hearing impared.....you paid.  A non-WECo  made 
phone....hmmm, maybe jail for that violation.

If you had an "illegal" extension in your home, they knew by checking your 
capacitor kick in the test bureau...you were probably "cheating" the fone 
company out of the $6 for their   WECo made  extension.

I used to go to Bickoff's junk yard in Newark.  It was loaded with valuable 
(gold plated tubes) "junk" he bought by the pound from Bell Labs.  At 
another junk yard, I told the owner....those tubes out there in the mud have 
gold plated grids!  Guess what happened next, LOL.

Today, "long distance" doesn't exist.  The monopoly is gone and we're better 
off for it.  Sure there we positives out of Bell Labs, but in the end, at 
what cost to the consumers?

How quickly we forget what ruthless bastards they were.

Thanks, Judge Greene...RIP

lar