SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH APPLIED TO THE TELEPHONE 273 



service conditions. This is an important factor in extending the 

 useful Hfe of these instruments and in reducing the cost of maintaining 

 the desired transmission performance. 



You will perhaps pardon me if, in concluding, I say a few words 

 which I hope will not seem unduly laudatory of the work of my 

 associates in the Bell Laboratories. The facts seem to be that twenty 

 years ago or thereabouts, there was very little general scientific 

 interest in sound and sound devices. As a result of work begun in 



1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 



FREQUENCY IN CYCLES PER SECOND 



Fig. 8 — Comparison of the response-frequency characteristics of telephone instru- 



. ments since 1927. 



these Laboratories, and as the possibilities of interesting and important 

 applications became apparent, broad scientific interest was stimulated, 

 and we have seen and welcomed increasing research activity in sound 

 and acoustics in many of the university laboratories and in new 

 industries based upon the results of scientific research in sound initiated 

 by us. A number of my associates have attained world-wide recogni- 

 tion for their scientific and technical accomplishments. Our scientific 

 investigations were undertaken to enable us to develop further the 



