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The Rise and Fall of the Industrial R&D Lab

For a time in recent history, R&D labs seemed to exist in a golden age of innovation and productivity. But this period vanished as swiftly as it came to be. How did it happen, and why did it fade away?

Ben Southwood

Works in Progress, 2020

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Although the business world seems thick with new technology, the pace of new discoveries has slowed since the post-war era when large industrial labs dominated innovation. In this densely detailed historic overview for Works in Progress, Ben Southwood reports that big labs declined in importance as smaller labs – and, later, immense new tech companies such as Google – came to dominate R&D. He examines the drivers that help today’s labs succeed and discusses their outlook for the future.

Summary

Labs fostering discovery and innovation have burgeoned in the United States since the 1800s.

In the 1800s, solo experimenters pursued innovative projects to satisfy the public’s pragmatic needs; among other breakthroughs, Thomas Edison created the light bulb. Later inventors often drew their discoveries from broader scientific understandings as outside investors underwrote their work. These innovations became the province of patent lawyers, private companies, and their production and marketing departments. Some corporations acquired patents only as fuel for infringement lawsuits.

Skepticism about the contributions of in-house inventors gave way as more staff scientists succeeded in developing important new innovations. Bell Labs grew to have a workforce of 15,000 people, including 1,200 PhDs. It produced the transistor, the photovoltaic cell, and the first “complex” numeric calculator. Fourteen of its scientists eventually won Nobel Prizes and five earned Turing Awards.

After the late 1920s financial collapse – which stemmed in part from the results of a tech bubble similar to the one...

About the Author

Ben Southwood is the founding editor of the online magazine Works in Progress, a part of Stripe.

The Rise and Fall of the Industrial R&D Lab

For a time in recent history, R&D labs seemed to exist in a golden age of innovation and productivity. But this period vanished as swiftly as it came to be. How did it happen, and why did it fade away?

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Labs fostering discovery and innovation have burgeoned in the United States since the 1800s.

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