Bell System Technical Journal archives published

[Benjamin Scott]

  Perhaps Alcatel-Lucent isn't pure evil after all.  They've published
the archives of the Bell System Technical Journal from 1922 to 1983
online, freely accessible.

http://bstj.bell-labs.com/

  Bell Labs practically invented much of our recently civilization
(communications theory, transistor, laser, microchip, Unix, the list
goes on).  The public switched telephone network, before the Internet
came along, was probably the most complicated system in human
existence.  They documented a lot of it in these journals.  Making
them available like this is a huge boon to technology historians.

  Some choice pickings:

"The Unix-Time Sharing System" (1978)
The original paper describing the OS which we all know and love
http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1978/BSTJ.1978.5706-2.html

"A mathematical theory of communication" (1948)
This defined the field of information theory -- telecom, DSP,
encryption, compression, etc., all work in this space
http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1948/BSTJ.1948.2703.html
http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1948/BSTJ.1948.2704.html

"In-Band Single-Frequency Signaling" (1954)
This was the paper that enabled the infamous "blue boxes"
http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1954/BSTJ.1954.3306.html

"Number One Electronic Switching System" (1964)
The first stored-program telephone switch, a technological marvel of its day
http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1964/BSTJ.1964.4305.html

-- Ben