[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Douglas McIlroy]

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Really sobering is the estimate that it will bring 1000 jobs to New
Brunswick. That's a small fraction of the capacity of Murray Hill. On the
upside is proximity to Rutgers.

Contrary to what the article said, Murray Hill does not date from the Labs'
foundation in 1925. The Labs was in the meat-packing district on West
Street in New York in a building now called Westbeth, said to be the
world's largest artist community. The High Line runs right through it. I
worked there one summer in the penthouse with a fine view of ship traffic
on the Hudson. Murray Hill opened in 1941 and West Street closed in about
1967.

> Goodbye, Unix Room!

The Unix Room was dismantled some time ago, but its quirky contents were
grabbed by the Labs archivist, who had them on display at the Unix50
celebration--pink flamingo, G. R. Emlin, CCW clock and all. I wonder
whether these relics will make the move.

Doug

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Marc Donner]

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Some years ago I tracked down the location of the original Labs and walked
by.  The space where the trains used to be able to go is very odd looking.

On Sat, Dec 9, 2023 at 4:45 PM Douglas McIlroy <
douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> Really sobering is the estimate that it will bring 1000 jobs to New
> Brunswick. That's a small fraction of the capacity of Murray Hill. On the
> upside is proximity to Rutgers.
>
> Contrary to what the article said, Murray Hill does not date from the
> Labs' foundation in 1925. The Labs was in the meat-packing district on West
> Street in New York in a building now called Westbeth, said to be the
> world's largest artist community. The High Line runs right through it. I
> worked there one summer in the penthouse with a fine view of ship traffic
> on the Hudson. Murray Hill opened in 1941 and West Street closed in about
> 1967.
>
> > Goodbye, Unix Room!
>
> The Unix Room was dismantled some time ago, but its quirky contents were
> grabbed by the Labs archivist, who had them on display at the Unix50
> celebration--pink flamingo, G. R. Emlin, CCW clock and all. I wonder
> whether these relics will make the move.
>
> Doug
>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Andrew Hume]

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my wife, karen montgomery, who used to work for kernighan and others at MH,
sent me a local posting:

	“the entire facility from the ground to the floor cabinets and vents
are contaminated. they can’t knock anything down or even dig because there are
already chemicals flowing downhill in NP (new providence). hence the cancer
cluster in the woodbine circle area.”

karen grew up on woodbine circle.

there is also the NRC decommissioning plan:  https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0819/ML081910076.pdf


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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Al Kossow]

On 12/12/23 7:46 AM, Lars Brinkhoff wrote:
> I think it was torn down.

Completely gone, now part of the open space preserve.

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Lars Brinkhoff]

Noel Chiappa writes:
> That wasn't the only historic CS building that has been abandoned. 545
> Technology Square, one-time home of the Multics project, the MIT AI
> Lab, and much else (including the above story) was exited by MIT some
> years ago.

The Stanford AI lab met a similar fate when its home, the D.C. Power
building was abandoned.  I think it was torn down.

Here's a video from after the AI lab moved out.  From the looks of it,
right after some zombie apocalypse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrg_R3VYnEU

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Ken Thompson

    > someone rewired someones desk lamp. i dont know how that worked out.

Sometimes electrical 'jokes' don't pan out - in a big way.

I was hacking the light switch in Jerry Saltzer's office (I don't recall
exactly what I was planning; IIRC, something mundane and lame like flipping
it upside down), and as I took it out of the box, the hot terminal touched
the side of the box (which was, properly, well grounded).

The entire 5th floor powered down.

What had happened was that the breaker for Jerry's office probably hadn't
been tripped in decades (maybe since it was put in), and it was apparently a
little sticky. Also, the floor had originally been wired back when all that
most people had in their offices, in the way of electrical load, was an
incandescent desk lamp or so. Now, most offices had, not just a couple of
terminals, most also had an Alto - greatly increased overall load. The total
draw for the whole floor was now very close to the rating of the main breaker
for the whole floor - and my slip of the hand had put it over. And that one
_wasn't_ sticky.

The worst part was that when we looked in the 5th floor electrical closet, we
couldn't find anything wrong. An electrician was summoned (luckily, or
unluckily, it was daytime; not having access to a 5th floor master, we'd gone
in while everything was unlocked - daytime), and he finally located the
breaker responsible - in an electrical closet on the 9th floor.

I got carpeted by Jerry, when he got back; I escaped without major
punishment,in part, IIRC, because I pointed out that I'd exposed a
previously-unsuspected issue. (I have this vague memory that the wiring on
the 5th floor was upgraded not long after.)


That wasn't the only historic CS building that has been abandoned. 545
Technology Square, one-time home of the Multics project, the MIT AI Lab,
and much else (including the above story) was exited by MIT some years
ago.

There, too, some history was abandoned - including the hack that allowed
people to call the elevators to their floor from their terminals. (Some
hackers had run some carefully disguised wires up into the elevator
controller - ran them along the back of structural members, carefully hidden
- and thence to the TV-11 that ran all the Knight TV bit-mapped displays
attached to the AI ITS time-sharing machine. So from a Knight TV console, if
you typed 'Escape E', it called the elevator to your floor - the code:

  https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/src/system/tv.147

even has a table - at ELETAB: - giving which floor each console was on, so it
got called to the correct floor. I wonder what happened to that when the
Knight TV system was ditched? Did it get moved to another machine? Actually,
I have a dim memory that the elevator people found it, and it was removed.)

	Noel

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[arnold]

norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson) wrote:

> I bet you didn't find a bowling ball.
>
> Norman Wilson
> Toronto ON

OK, I'll bite. What's the story / reference behind this?

Thanks,

Arnold

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Ken Thompson]

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they were regular in the ny subway to stop theft.
some companies in ny also got them for the same
reason. my guess is that bell labs (in ny) did and
brought them out to mh. someone rewired someones
desk lamp. i dont know how that worked out.


On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 9:58 PM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:

> Why ? Pranksters or is there some application that benefits from left hand
> screwed light bulbs?
>
> Warner
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023, 10:55 PM Ken Thompson <kenbob@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> there was a room with left-hand screw
>> 100 watt light bulbs and sockets.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 6:36 PM Peter Weinberger (温博格) via TUHS <
>> tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>>
>>> The protons must have decayed by now.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 8:25 PM ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> is "PJW in magnets" still there, I wonder.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:06 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen
>>>>> on ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is
>>>>> said and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
>>>>> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
>>>>> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
>>>>> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>>>>>
>>>>> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of
>>>>> curiosity, openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the
>>>>> human condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and
>>>>> other Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about
>>>>> the breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections
>>>>> of Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
>>>>> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
>>>>> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
>>>>> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
>>>>> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
>>>>> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Matt G.
>>>>> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <
>>>>> rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>>>>>
>>>>> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
>>>>> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
>>>>> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
>>>>> before <someone> left."
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
>>>>> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>>>>>> between them.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide
>>>>>> the corporate directory.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had
>>>>>> to shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon
>>>>>> Valley for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the
>>>>>> Name Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739 <(908)%20230-3739>
>>>>>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>>>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful
>>>>>> structure. Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> john
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Warner Losh]

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Why ? Pranksters or is there some application that benefits from left hand
screwed light bulbs?

Warner

On Mon, Dec 11, 2023, 10:55 PM Ken Thompson <kenbob@gmail.com> wrote:

> there was a room with left-hand screw
> 100 watt light bulbs and sockets.
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 6:36 PM Peter Weinberger (温博格) via TUHS <
> tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> The protons must have decayed by now.
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 8:25 PM ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> is "PJW in magnets" still there, I wonder.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:06 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen
>>>> on ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is
>>>> said and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
>>>> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
>>>> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
>>>> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>>>>
>>>> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of
>>>> curiosity, openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the
>>>> human condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and
>>>> other Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about
>>>> the breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections
>>>> of Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
>>>> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
>>>> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
>>>> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
>>>> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
>>>> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>>>>
>>>> - Matt G.
>>>> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <
>>>> rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>>>>
>>>> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
>>>> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
>>>> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
>>>> before <someone> left."
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
>>>> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>>>>
>>>>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>>>>> between them.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide
>>>>> the corporate directory.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
>>>>> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
>>>>> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
>>>>> Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739 <(908)%20230-3739>
>>>>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful
>>>>> structure. Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> john
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Ken Thompson]

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there was a room with left-hand screw
100 watt light bulbs and sockets.


On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 6:36 PM Peter Weinberger (温博格) via TUHS <
tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> The protons must have decayed by now.
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 8:25 PM ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> is "PJW in magnets" still there, I wonder.
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:06 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>>
>>> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen on
>>> ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is said
>>> and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
>>> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
>>> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
>>> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>>>
>>> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of
>>> curiosity, openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the
>>> human condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and
>>> other Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about
>>> the breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections
>>> of Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
>>> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
>>> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
>>> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
>>> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
>>> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>>>
>>> - Matt G.
>>> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <
>>> rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>>>
>>> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
>>> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
>>> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
>>> before <someone> left."
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
>>> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>>>
>>>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>>>> between them.
>>>>
>>>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide
>>>> the corporate directory.
>>>>
>>>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
>>>> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
>>>> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
>>>> Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>>>
>>>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739 <(908)%20230-3739>
>>>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful
>>>> structure. Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> john
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Peter Weinberger (温博格) via TUHS]

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The protons must have decayed by now.

On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 8:25 PM ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:

> is "PJW in magnets" still there, I wonder.
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:06 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen on
>> ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is said
>> and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
>> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
>> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
>> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>>
>> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of
>> curiosity, openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the
>> human condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and
>> other Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about
>> the breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections
>> of Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
>> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
>> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
>> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
>> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
>> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>>
>> - Matt G.
>> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <
>> rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>>
>> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
>> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
>> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
>> before <someone> left."
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
>> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>>
>>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>>> between them.
>>>
>>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the
>>> corporate directory.
>>>
>>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
>>> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
>>> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
>>> Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>>
>>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739 <(908)%20230-3739>
>>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>>
>>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure.
>>> Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>>
>>>
>>> john
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[ron minnich]

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is "PJW in magnets" still there, I wonder.

On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:06 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen on
> ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is said
> and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>
> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of curiosity,
> openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the human
> condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and other
> Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about the
> breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections of
> Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>
> - Matt G.
> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>
> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
> before <someone> left."
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>
>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>> between them.
>>
>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the
>> corporate directory.
>>
>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
>> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
>> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
>> Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>
>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739
>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>
>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure.
>> Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>
>>
>> john
>>
>>
>>
>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Norman Wilson]

ken.unix.guy@gmail.com:

  A company I used to work for was vacating a building. I asked, has anyone
  checked under the raised floor tiles?

  The answer was no. Well I did and found a lot of history down there. From
  component parts from long forgotten
  systems to water cooling lines for long gone IBM heavy metal and a ground
  window.

===

I bet you didn't find a bowling ball.

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON

[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[KenUnix]

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A company I used to work for was vacating a building. I asked, has anyone
checked under the raised floor tiles?

The answer was no. Well I did and found a lot of history down there. From
component parts from long forgotten
systems to water cooling lines for long gone IBM heavy metal and a ground
window.

-Ken


On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 7:59 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen on
> ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is said
> and done.  You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet
> somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls,
> formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern
> equivalent fails to come to mind.
>
> For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of curiosity,
> openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the human
> condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and other
> Bell Labs sites over the decades.  A video I watched recently about the
> breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections of
> Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something
> greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company.
> Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and
> businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of
> magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such
> important times passing too into the sands of time.
>
> - Matt G.
> On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>
> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
> before <someone> left."
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
> martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>
>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
>> between them.
>>
>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the
>> corporate directory.
>>
>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
>> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
>> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
>> Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>
>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739
>> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>
>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure.
>> Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>
>>
>> john
>>
>>
>>
>

-- 
End of line
JOB TERMINATED

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[segaloco via TUHS]

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While my gut says not likely, I'm holding out hope that Nokia is keen on ensuring someone does a historical sweep of the premises before all is said and done. You never know what might be sitting forgotten in a closet somewhere...a lot of history has gone down in those illustrious halls, formative moments in our quest for better technology for which a modern equivalent fails to come to mind.

For me it's not just about innovations though, but a culture of curiosity, openness, and what feels like genuine interest in bettering the human condition that seeps from so much of the work accomplished by MH and other Bell Labs sites over the decades. A video I watched recently about the breakup of the Bell System echoed what I see in countless recollections of Bell Labs alumni, a sense that their work was contributing to something greater for everyone, not just the bottom line of the telephone company. Hopefully the lessons Bell Labs has taught many an engineer, scientist, and businessperson over the years outlive these facilities by orders of magnitude, but in either case, sad to see the physical artifacts of such important times passing too into the sands of time.

- Matt G.
On Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 1:21 PM, ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:

> April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:
>
> "I'm about to turn this terminal off,
> the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
> same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
> before <someone> left."
>
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>>
>> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance between them.
>>
>> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the corporate directory.
>>
>> Anecdote on the latter: The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name Search committee didn't have "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>>
>> =*+[]* Marty McGowan +1 908 230-3739
>> [VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton](https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships)https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>>
>>> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure. Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>>>
>>> john

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[ron minnich]

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April 16, 2014, from the Unix room:

"I'm about to turn this terminal off,
the last one in the Unix Room. It's the
same 400MHz Pentium II I've had since
before <someone> left."

On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 11:46 AM Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton <
martymcg@fastmail.com> wrote:

>  Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.
>
> my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance
> between them.
>
> I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the
> corporate directory.
>
> Anecdote on the latter:  The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to
> shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley
> for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name
> Search committee didn't have  "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.
>
> =*+[]* Marty McGowan        +1 908 230-3739
> VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton
> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
> <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
>
> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure.
> Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
>
>
> john
>
>
>

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[TUHS] Re: Sad news: Bell Labs leaving Murray Hill.

[Marty McGowan, MIT Club of Princeton]

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 Thus following the Holmdel facility into the Halls of Oblivion.

my current location, just E of the NJ Tpke, now splits the distance between them.

I was in HO in the late '80s, at MH in the mid '90s, there to divide the corporate directory.  

Anecdote on the latter:  The "company to be named" - i.e. Lucent had to shell out Hundreds of 1000s to Yet Another Garage Tronics in Silicon Valley for rights to the name -- the internet was young enough that the Name Search committee didn't have  "Dot Com" in it's dictionary as yet.

=*+[]* Marty McGowan        +1 908 230-3739
VP of Membership, MIT Club of Princeton <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>
 <https://alumcommunity.mit.edu/topics/23427/memberships>






On Sat, Dec 9, 2023, at 15:37, John Floren via TUHS wrote:
> I can't believe they'd give up the building, it's a beautiful structure. Maybe they'll use it for other groups.
> 
> 
> john
> 

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