The Rise and Fall of the Industrial R&D Lab

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...