Ah the good old days

From NPR – All Things Considered:

Before Silicon Valley, New Jersey Reigned As Nation’s Center Of Innovation

People from New Jersey are used to defending their state.

But, in fact, New Jersey has a history to brag about. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, the phonograph and the movie camera there. Many decades later, Bell Labs invented the transistor in the state.

Geography favored New Jersey. On one end, it borders New York City, and on the other end is Philadelphia. That means easy access to Wall Street financing, transportation and industry headquarters.

It all started in the 18th century, when Alexander Hamilton took one look at the plunging Passaic River waterfall in Paterson and his eyes lit up with dreams of industry. That came true for silk, textiles and locomotives. Then in 1870, a smart young inventor named Thomas Edison set up shop in Newark.

“The things that make it attractive for Edison are the things that kind of make it attractive for a lot of aspiring people who come to New Jersey today,” says Leonard DeGraaf, an archivist at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, N.J.

“Edison has the resources,” DeGraaf adds. “He could live and work anywhere, and the fact that he decides to stay in New Jersey I think says something about how he perceived New Jersey as a good place for him to set up laboratories and build companies and manufacture his inventions.”

That’s what made it attractive to Bell Labs. It spread out over several sites in the middle of the state and created many of the technologies that paved the way for 20th century inventions. One of its former facilities, which once held 6,000 engineers and researchers, is in the suburb of Holmdel.

“We perfected cellular communications in this building,” says Edward Eckert, a Bell Labs corporate archivist. “Even before this building was built, we used this property for wireless research — transatlantic radio, telephone, microwave.”

And not too far from there a group of Bell Lab scientists discovered the transistor — the root technology of all silicon chips.

So why didn’t Silicon Valley rise up in New Jersey? Johns Hopkins professor Stuart Leslie, who studies the history of science and technology, says it should have.

“If you were going to place a bet on whether it was going to be New Jersey or Northern California and you placed that bet, say, in 1950, where would you put your money?” Leslie says. “You’d obviously put it on New Jersey.”

But a migration happened west because, as Leslie puts it, the East Coast had become “insular, isolated, self-contained.”

Some cultural differences were also shaped by the law. New Jersey has strict anti-competitive laws that make it hard to take what you learn at your job and create a new company. William Shockley, one of those brilliant Nobel laureates who invented the transistor, moved to California to open his lab in Mountain View, the current home of Google. His employees also left to found their own companies.

It’s not entirely fair to say innovation has vanished from the Garden State. New Jersey ranks 11th among the 50 states for tech industry employment, according to tech association CompTIA. But the excitement and experimentation surrounding Silicon Valley is but a whisper in New Jersey.

There’s a lesson in what happened to New Jersey. Technology centers can shift and change. Bell Labs rested on its laurels; maybe it was a little smug. Nothing lasts forever. Smugness is not a New Jersey exclusive.

This entry was posted in Demographics, Economics, New Jersey Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

65 Responses to Ah the good old days

  1. Juice Box says:

    First!

  2. JJ fanboy says:

    Second first

  3. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Jersey will rise again!

    “That Holmdel facility where Bell Labs perfected cellular communications is being redeveloped as a hub for startups like Vydia. It’s a company that helps people make money on videos they post on social media.

    “I’m from New Jersey, and I grew up in New Jersey,” says Vydia CEO Roy LaManna. “I think it’s becoming a tech hub because it was a tech hub. … There’s almost like no doubt in my mind that that’s gonna happen. It just feels like something is happening here.””

  4. Juice Box says:

    The more modern history of Silicon Valley rise is Intel’s 8080 chipset and the rise of Homebrew computing in the 1970’s. The smugness was the Mainframe guys on the East Coast.

    Just this year Silicon Valley is declaring the death of the Mainframe

  5. Juice Box says:

    Does Trump Wag the Dog today?

  6. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Go Jersey! Your time will come again. Jersey citizens hard at work bringing together higher education and business. Great incubator for the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

    “That’s what NJBIA has been doing for the past seven years. We formed the Innovation NJ Coalition in 2010 to bring together a coalition of businesses and higher education institutions to grow the state’s innovation ecosystem and make our business environment better prepared for what’s next. Higher education is crucial in providing businesses with knowledge and resources so academic achievement can turn into economic development, and New Jersey’s colleges and universities have taken up the challenge.

    For instance, we now have the New Jersey Innovation Institute, which offers the science and technology resources of the NJ Institute of Technology to help startup companies get through their most challenging times. As the institute says, the goal is in “transforming intellectual capital into commercial success.”

    In South Jersey, Rowan University has launched the South Jersey Technology Park, which combines the expertise of its engineering and science faculty with a broad range of university facilities and resources, and then works with the Rohrer College of Business to help companies bring those products to market.

    Rowan also backs up its efforts with funding. The Rowan Innovation Venture Fund provides early-stage funding primarily to students, faculty, staff, alumni and South Jersey companies that have developed projects and products that are ready to compete in the marketplace.

    Rutgers University meanwhile is bolstering innovation by making entrepreneurship part of its education model. The university now offers a Certificate of Entrepreneurship. The program is made up of three 3-credit courses: Entrepreneurial Mindset and Innovation, Creating Your Startup Business Model, and Pitch and Launch Your Startup. It also offers a Graduate Certificate with advanced courses where teams engage in creative problem-solving, and develop and test solutions.

    In addition, Rutgers Business School is now offering a full MBA in Technology Commercialization, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It’s a degree that brings business students and the science and engineering disciplines together to develop the skills necessary for turning great ideas into successful ventures.

    These are just a few examples of new innovative programs. Virtually every higher education institution in the state is undertaking projects to bring business and academia together, and their efforts may soon get a big boost.

    The NJ Economic Development Authority (EDA) is in the process of creating a database where each university’s research projects, facilities and resources will be catalogued and available to the business community. Can you imagine having the entire state’s college-level R & D merely a mouse-click away? The venture is still a ways off, but EDA hopes to award a contract soon.

    This is a huge undertaking, but one that is essential for our economic future. When we began analyzing New Jersey’s innovation economy years ago, there was no bridge between what businesses were doing and the research going on at our colleges. We recognized right away that if New Jersey is going to reclaim its reputation as the innovation state, this was the first thing that had to change.

    Colleges and universities are embracing partnerships, and the government is ready to build the infrastructure needed to make those partnerships possible. And I know the business community is ready to do its part.”

    http://njtechweekly.com/art/3340-njs-innovation-ecosystem-taking-shape/

  7. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    Hey ExPat…can you send me that FF plugin?

  8. No One says:

    Now most of the computing power in Paterson and Newark is devoted to coordinating deliveries of drugs and hoes. Thanks to federal and state welfare programs like the AFDC for making that transition to a life of leisure possible.

  9. Chi says:

    NJBIA. Is that the modern day NAMBLA?

  10. Chi says:

    Last night appears to be a covefefe moment on the blog

  11. No One says:

    Chi,
    Yep, the Pumpkin was expressing himself via all of his orifices.

  12. Bystander says:

    Blumps took his H-Bomb early. He will come down by early afternoon.

  13. grim says:

    Comey very impressive this morning.

  14. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Comey just testified, “I had great parents and great teachers that beat that into me.” Nobody will remember that line.

    Do you think CNN might spend a day and a half on it if Trump said the same thing?

  15. The Great Pumpkin says:

    My previous comment goes to media bias, not a knock on Comey. I concur that he is doing very well.

    Comey very impressive this morning./i>

  16. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I think James Comey and Barbra Streisand share the same brain. He’s good, he’s great, he’s tall and is used to hearing it a lot. God forbid he goes a day or two without hearing it. Also – peach towels.

  17. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Does anybody remember that Comey left a $6 million per year job to become FBI director?

    “Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to go back to being rich.”

  18. grim says:

    He is an operator, period.

  19. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    Lot’s of convenient answers by Comey.

    Did you tell anyone? No. I felt it was better to be kept in a locked box. Come on now. Your bias is showing.

  20. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Trump is such a loser. He is nothing more than a soap opera leader wasting our f’en time and tax dollars on bs. You suck.

  21. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Risch is a genius.

    Risch: “So again, so the American people can understand this, that report by the New York Times was (pause) not (pause) true.”

    Comey: “In the main it was not true.”

  22. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Comey continuing about the specific New York Times article

    Comey: “Nonsense, but I can’t go on explaining how it’s nonsense.”

    LOL.

  23. The Great Pumpkin says:

    I’m so mad that I am shoving my fist up my ass. And I haven’t cut my fingernails in 4 months.

  24. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Can’t wait till Trump tries to paint this as some sort of victory. He just doesn’t get it. The fact that we are even having this hearing is embarrassing.

  25. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Ouch

  26. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    If you don’t ask the answer is always no.

  27. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    We are having this hearing because the Dems still can’t accept the fact that this bumbling fool of a POTUS could beat their candidate who has been groomed for the office for nearly her entire lifetime. This is like the Maddow income tax reveal playing out all over again. The only thing that makes it more incredulous is that Comey unintentionally played a role in Trump winning the election. Trump is playing this whole thing out perfectly. He knows there is nothing there, since there is nothing there. In Comey’s word vs. Trump’s, Trump’s words wins. Comey can do little more than come up with conjecture. Comey is coming up with nothing but conjecture.

  28. leftwing says:

    Different article from the site that Pumps was cheerleading.

    http://njtechweekly.com/art/3334-njs-hardest-to-get-into-public-high-schools-explained/

    Yeah, on an honest full state public/private ranking the 1-5 ranked public districts would be 25 or lower.

    Advancing the student further than they would otherwise go (that elusive counterfactual) and college admissions relative to the profiles accepted students at applied universities. The two most relevant measures.

    Instead, public districts funnel kids into the college equivalent of Vineyard Vines (easily recognizable, socially acceptable, comfortable, likely overrated, and expensive) for which they are overqualified and then everyone gets patted on the back by NJ Monthly and feels good. Wash, rinse, repeat.

  29. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I’m so far back on DVR buffer that I don’t know what comes next, but who would have thought that Marco Rubio comes off as a superstar defending Trump?

  30. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Glenn Thrush @GlennThrush
    Senate R aide: Holding nose and defending Trump is taking a lot out of these GOP senators — and they will demand some kind of repayment…

  31. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Lib – Absolutely true, but the DNC was stupid too. HRC has never won a truly competitive election and they should have realized that. To your point, this has disrupted the Democrat party for the next decade and they are scrambling for their only “hail Mary” chance, which is ejecting Trump from the political system that he will continue to run roughshod through. The Dems don’t even have any credible leadership on the horizon and every time Hillary pops up her nonsensical head on a good Parkinson’s day she takes another massive, smelly, poop load on the party. My guess is they would have gone public with her disease before her re-election to buy her a second FDR sympathy term. Now they are just f.ucked which is why the media has been turned up to “we don’t give a f.uck what you think about our bias.”

    This is analogous to Big Waxed Paper being oblivious to Aluminum Foil coming down the pike.

    We are having this hearing because the Dems still can’t accept the fact that this bumbling fool of a POTUS could beat their candidate who has been groomed for the office for nearly her entire lifetime.

  32. Juice Box says:

    Yeah there was interference in the election. Democratic spin we all heard and now we know why.

    #Comey says he was directed by former AG Lynch not to call #HillaryClinton email probe an ‘investigation’

  33. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Expat, why would Democrats want him impeached? That would put Pence in office and actually give the Republicans a shot at re-election.

  34. The Great Pumpkin says:

    I guess the hate for Trump is too strong. They just want him out even if it means risking the next election.

  35. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I’m 5’11” and had height anxiety during high school because I was only 5′ 5″ at the end of my Junior year in HS. In the late 1970’s the popularity of platform shoes for girls leveraged my dilemma. I literally prayed that I would at least be as tall as my father (5′ 7-1/2″). I also prayed that my sister who was 2 years younger than me would never be taller than me. The Summer after my Junior year it all worked out (prayers answered?) and I never really thought about it again my entire adult life until…

    When we first moved to England I noticed that people are a little shorter up here. In church I would notice that I was actually, for the first time, kind of tall when the entire congregation was standing. When we moved to Boston we joined a small church (yeah, I traded in Catholicism for Methodism a couple decades ago) where we used to conduct communion in a circle at the front of the church. There wasn’t a lot of room between the single step up to the altar level and the congregation level, one carpeted step down. Depending where you were in the circle you might be on that step up, or down on the “main” level. Whenever I was up on the “altar” level I had this weird sensation that I was not only at a higher altitude than the majority of the congregation, but I felt this strange disconnect. I would imagine what it would be like to be this tall all the time. I didn’t imagine anything positive about it.

    It almost seemed like there was the entire community going on about their business “down there” and I wasn’t a part of it.

    Imagine living life at 6’8″ like Comey. I imagine there is less some feeling of superiority, and more wanting to belong “down there”.

  36. PumpkinFace says:

    Leftwing,

    “Morris County’s vo-tech district spent about $20,444 per pupil in total spending, including about $9,234 per student on classroom instruction, according to the 2015-2016 state education spending data.”

    Quite the delta, but still better than other public schools (it claims).

  37. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    McCain, despite his senility…

  38. leftwing says:

    Charters cheaper, not more expensive? As they should be given their mandate and operations.

    Issue is not cost per pupil. It’s output for what is coming in the door, and perception of that output.

    A 4.0GPA kid, with great extracurriculars, and a 98 percentile on standardized tests should do better than the “brand name” regional university where he compares above the median of accepted students.

    Kind of weird many in NJ Monthly top towns are dislocating their shoulders to pat themselves on the back for that outcome.

  39. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    “but the DNC was stupid too”

    They killed their savior in Bernie. Even Trump admitted he wouldn’t have beaten Bernie.

  40. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Here’s the crazy thing about NJ – It’s an expensive, but not too bad place to live – but nobody outside of NJ knows it. New Jersey just has zero cachet once you get 50 miles from Ridgewood in any direction. I’m quite sure that my MIL is dragging her heels when it comes to moving out of the state because she knows that there is no difference between Glen Rock and Garfield once you move anywhere else. It’s all just Jersey. When you get into a conversation about where you’ve spent your life there is never going to be anybody who says “OMG! You lived in New Jersey? What was it like? I hear it’s great!”

  41. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Exactly right. Any other Dem would have beaten Trump, any other R would have beaten Hillary worse. It was like a Padres – White Sox World Series. Who would’ve thought the White Sox could win?

    “but the DNC was stupid too”

    They killed their savior in Bernie. Even Trump admitted he wouldn’t have beaten Bernie.

  42. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    ^^^ There should be a designated hitter joke in there somewhere.

  43. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Clinton’s are responsible for the circus encompassing our govt right now. Thank you, Bill and Hillary! Great job!

  44. leftwing says:

    “When you get into a conversation about where you’ve spent your life there is never going to be anybody who says “OMG! You lived in New Jersey? What was it like? I hear it’s great!”

    Pretty much sums it up.

    I was from an area that was subject to ridicule. Little bit of a regional accent, nothing special to note for an OMG. Thought I used to get picked on a bit until I hit college. Guys from Jersey got crucified.

  45. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Trump wins. R’s circled their wagons today, including McCain who was barely coherent. McCain’s daughter, a horrible cunt and Trump hater, is even defending Trump right now. They’ve all fallen in line.

  46. No One says:

    Must be a downer for all the people who kneeled by the TV set salivating for Watergate 2 – Russian Boogaloo

  47. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    LOL. Comey slipped up with his timeline and has now perjured himself.

  48. Fast Eddie says:

    LOL. Comey slipped up with his timeline and has now perjured himself.

    Please explain for those of us not able to hear what’s going on.

    What happened?

  49. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Trump’s personal lawyer alleged that Comey lied under oath when he said he leaked his memos in response to a Trump tweet, arguing that the New York Times was writing about it the day before Trump’s tweet.

    The NYT reporter (Julie Davis) denies this.

  50. grim says:

    Comey came out looking great, Trump came out looking great. Media came out looking shitty.

  51. The Great Pumpkin says:

    What a f’en clown. I really can’t believe I supported this clown at one point based on his infrastructure plan and tax reforms. Totally conned me. At least I woke up, unfortunately, most of his supporters didn’t.

    “President Trump has revealed his pathetic infrastructure plan, which is largely a tax giveaway to Wall Street and corporations who stash millions of dollars overseas. His plan would give away the essence of America, our infrastructure, to foreign countries and wealthy investors who will be able to buy our roads, our bridges, etcetera, while shifting the burden to ordinary citizens who will have to pay more in tolls and fees. This is a disgrace.”—Bernie Sanders

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15753520/bernie-sanders-trump-infrastructure

  52. The Great Pumpkin says:

    It’s all for sale folks…..till there is nothing left and everything is owned by the “man,” aka the elite. What’s next…the return of legalized slavery?

  53. The Great Pumpkin says:

    They want to own it all including YOU!

  54. Grab them by the puzzy says:

    that’s right. move to Alabama instead

    people be like “OMG! You lived in the Deep South? What was it like? I hear it’s great!”

    leftwing says:
    June 8, 2017 at 2:14 pm
    “When you get into a conversation about where you’ve spent your life there is never going to be anybody who says “OMG! You lived in New Jersey? What was it like? I hear it’s great!”

    Pretty much sums it up.

    I was from an area that was subject to ridicule. Little bit of a regional accent, nothing special to note for an OMG. Thought I used to get picked on a bit until I hit college. Guys from Jersey got crucified.

  55. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    Thank god for Cleveland!

  56. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Wait until you have an epiphany about your highly taxed highway shack.

    I really can’t believe I supported this

  57. Grab them by the puzzy says:

    @washingtonpost

    John McCain responds to bizarre questioning of Comey:

    “I shouldn’t stay up late watching the Diamondbacks”

  58. Grab them by the puzzy says:

    @CNBCnow

    BREAKING:

    British Pound sharply plunges vs USD after exit poll says Conservatives to hold 314 seats,
    down from 330

  59. Hillary's Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:

    Well, at least the liberals get it somewhere, eh Moana?

  60. chicagofinance says:

    You mean voting for Murphy?

    The Great Pumpkin says:
    June 8, 2017 at 4:11 pm
    It’s all for sale folks…..till there is nothing left and everything is owned by the “man,” aka the elite. What’s next…the return of legalized slavery?

  61. chicagofinance says:

    Hillary’s Cankles are ground zero for Zika virus says:
    June 8, 2017 at 4:38 pm
    Thank god for Cleveland!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY

  62. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Jersey will rise again!

    “That Holmdel facility where Bell Labs perfected cellular communications is being redeveloped as a hub for startups like Vydia. It’s a company that helps people make money on videos they post on social media.

    “I’m from New Jersey, and I grew up in New Jersey,” says Vydia CEO Roy LaManna. “I think it’s becoming a tech hub because it was a tech hub. … There’s almost like no doubt in my mind that that’s gonna happen. It just feels like something is happening here.””

    We will make enough youtube videos to cover the pension shortfall.

  63. Phoenix says:

    Everyone talks about the millenial glass touchers.

    What about this one? 67-year-old woman

    http://www.nj.com/union/index.ssf/2017/06/woman_injured_after_fall_through_sidewalk_doors_vi.html#incart_river_home_pop

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