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Before Silicon Valley, New Jersey Reigned As Nation's Center Of Innovation
- meggar 9y agoSo there's silicon alley in NY, silicon prairie in the midwest, silicon forest in portland, what do we call Jersey?
- thrillgore 9y agoTelecom Alley, given that much of the tech jobs at the time were through Bell Labs and affiliates Or we could just call it uninhabitable.
- walshemj 9y agowasn't it called Route 128 ?
- ghaff 9y agoRoute 128 is in Massachusetts. (The term isn't really used any more because it doesn't correspond to where many/most companies are actually located--it only did to some degree even when the term was in vogue.)
- TFortunato 9y agoYep...seems most of what I hear when people from Massachusetts (myself included) when we talk about where we work to outsiders is either "In Boston", or "Right Outside Boston / Near Boston / The Boston Area" (For anything east of Worcester it seems, haha)
- aswanson 9y agoThe highway between DC and New York.
- madcaptenor 9y agoIf you wanted to confuse the hell out of people, you could call it "Silicon Garden", after the state's nickname, the Garden State.
- acjohnson55 9y agoOf course, it's only really confusing if your only touch points in the state are I-95 and US-1. A small handful of miles either direction off the Northeast Corridor, and the state earns its nickname.
- madcaptenor 9y agoI grew up in South Jersey and I agree that it does earn that nickname! But so many people only see New Jersey as a place to pass through and so they don't see it.
- seabj0rn 9y agoI grew up not far away from Bell Labs, very close to the Jersey Shore. Growing up, I remember friends' parents who worked in telecom refer to our area as Silicon Shore.
- seabj0rn 9y agoI grew up not far away from Bell Labs, very close to the Jersey Shore. Growing up, I remember friends' parents who worked in telecom refer to our area as Silicon Shore.
- eludwig 9y agoSilicon Turnpike? disclaimer: I live in NJ and commute to NY, yes - to work for a big financial concern. Lo and behold, I was just informed that my company is moving a ton of staff to a new Jersey "campus." They have likened the new facility to google or Facebook (although, knowing stuffy finance, I have my doubts ;)
- 0xfeba 9y agoSilicon armpit
- jpmattia 9y agoBack in the late 1990s during the telecom boom, the gov came out to the Holmdel Bell Labs bldg to proclaim the area be called "Photon Valley". The name didn't quite stick.
- OliverJones 9y agoTransistorland (for one Bell Labs invention)? UNIX shore (for another)? Claude and Harry's neighborhood (for Shannon and Nyquist)? The trouble is, the state's name now is Christie's Fiefdom, and that has to fade away.
- Akarnani 9y agoSilicon Shore? of I recall what people were saying a few years ago..
- devmunchies 9y agoDon't forget Silicon Slopes in Utah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Slopes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Slopes
- mdellavo 9y agoThe area carved out by Routes 78, 24 and 287 was once called the research triangle of NJ
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- santaclaus 9y ago> what do we call Jersey Silicon Disco Fries
- wheaties 9y agoTLDR: anti-competative laws shunted growth to areas like silicon Valley which didn't have them. Seriously, why do we even allow people not at a C level to be impacted by these laws that say you can't leave to start a competitor? Moreover, why is it legal, like in NY, for a company to say they own all your work both on and off the job? We're killing ourselves.
- eli_gottlieb 9y ago>Seriously, why do we even allow people not at a C level to be impacted by these laws that say you can't leave to start a competitor? Moreover, why is it legal, like in NY, for a company to say they own all your work both on and off the job? We're killing ourselves. Because the people in power don't want to compete in a market.
- maxxxxx 9y ago"Because the people in power don't want to compete in a market." That's something people forget. Even people and companies who have benefited from the market don't really want to compete and will do whatever they can to not have to compete.
- mturmon 9y agoNot having to compete is what got us Bell Labs.
- eli_gottlieb 9y agoA state-regulated monopoly is what got us Bell Labs, including the requirement that the patent on the first transistors be licensed for a purely nominal fee.
- walshemj 9y agoI am not sure why these state laws haven't ben struck down as unconsntitional as it will effect interstate commerce in fact you could argue that for most state employment laws.
- securingsincity 9y agoThe exact same story is told in the film industry. Edison's patents were very strongly enforced on the east coast, but not in California. All of the film studios then packed up and headed west.
- throwawaymanbot 9y agoProtectionism in capitalism does not work in the long run. Different forms of it are practiced to this day. US Capitalism is rife with with legislative protectionism.
- bogomipz 9y agoAlso central to New Jersey's weight as an innovation hub was Princeton University - where Alan Turning met and studied under Alonzo Church.[1]. Also worth mentioning is the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, N.J where Kurt Gödel remained a faculty member until his death in 1978.[2] Alfred Einstein also spent the last two years of his life working at the Institute. Imagine the conversations Einstein and Godel might have had? If you're interested, this a nice piece worth reading(Gödel and Einstein were walking companions!) [3] [1] http://www.maa.org/book/export/html/606725 http://www.maa.org/book/export/html/606725 [2] https://www.ias.edu/scholars/godel https://www.ias.edu/scholars/godel [3] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/28/time-bandits-2 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/28/time-bandits-2
- rb808 9y agoJohn von Neumann worked in Princeton, I didn't realize the von Neumann architecture was aka the Princeton architecture. Of course Einstein lived and worked in Princeton too.
- bogomipz 9y agoWow. Indeed, I did not know this - he was visiting professor for four years and also ended up at the Institute for Advanced Study: "In 1929 von Neumann accepted an invitation to come to Princeton as a visiting professor for one term. Given a continuing half-time appointment the following year, he spent one term each year in Princeton and one in Germany until 1933 when, at the age of 30, he accepted appointment as the youngest and one of the first professors in the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study. In 1937 he became a United States citizen." source: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/von_neumann_john.html http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/von_neumann_...
- hari_seldon_ 9y agoMany people on HN seem to forget that many strides in computer science, computer architecture, and mathematics came from schools that don't start with an "S" and are from outside of the Bay Area. I think it is more that the definition of how you measure innovation has shifted over time -- now it is based on how many dollars are raised for your venture vs. actual strides being made in academic fields of study.
- rb808 9y agoI think Wall st sucked up most of the tech talent from NJ. Well over half the IT staff I've seen in the big banks and hedge funds live in NJ and commute in. I dont think tech could compete salary wise, though is starting to change now. Also Virtually all the data centers for NYC banks are in NJ suburbs. Other Scientists and business people moved into Pharma in the 80s & 90s - which is also not doing so well.
- throwawaymanbot 9y agoI know a lot of tech staff being made to relocate TO NJ. Due to Manhattan costs. This is a good thing for NJ.
- dredmorbius 9y agoThat's a really good point. Brain-drain is a significant factor in any race for intellectual talent, and if you can switch locales just by hopping on a different train, it makes the switching costs that much lower.
- jballanc 9y agoWell, New Jersey is still the only state to have a programming language named for it (SML/NJ, in case you were curious)...
- Nav_Panel 9y agoSML/NJ is just a compiler/programming environment for SML[1], not a whole language on its own. Still impressive. 1: http://www.smlnj.org/smlnj.html http://www.smlnj.org/smlnj.html
- throwawaymanbot 9y agoAccording to wikipedia, it also has more engineers per square meter than any state in the US. Not quite the trashy state people are led to believe it is. Now that NYC is not affordable for startups, NJ will become a perfectly respectable tech/Start up hub. And good for it.
- aswanson 9y agoNah, Jersey is done. The same 1950s attitudes/laws that caused it to lose the industry are still there. That's why it's tech scene consists mostly of big doofy defense contractors and Comcast.
- throwawaymanbot 9y agoPerhaps, But, I'm wagering that with NYC pricing out anyone but wall st banks, the pressure will build and it will change out of necessity. NJ shall be remade and reborn!
- briandear 9y agoNot with the insane property taxes and other regulatory friction. Highest property taxes in the country. It also has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country as well. Health insurance is also higher than in neighboring NYC (at least the last time I checked a few years ago.) All of the Democrat candidates for NJ governor want to raise taxes even more. NJ also has the most underfunded public pension system in the country. -- a $44 billion shortfall. As a tech entrepreneur, I'd be very nervous about locating in a state that could, at any moment decide that those "wealthy tech companies" ought to be bailing out decades of financial mismanagement. NJ also ranked 49th in "Small Business Friendliness" -- California was 50th. New York was 48th. http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terrible_place_for_small_businesses_analysis_finds.html http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terribl... South Dakota, Nevada and Texas were the top three. If anywhere should be the "next" place, it should probably be Houston -- one of the most diverse cities in the country, low taxes, access to a massive academic medical center, NASA, the energy industry, low cost of living, Rice University (pioneers in nano-tech including a Nobel winners,) University of Houston, including Paul Chu in superconducting. Texas A&M is about an hour away with more Nobel winners, including the 1996 Nobel in Physics and substantial engineering and science research programs New Jersey does have Princeton of course and access to NYC (if that actually matters.) New Jersey's only "attraction" other than Princeton is "proximity to New York." I would have to see some actual data to be convinced that "proximity to New York" actually has a material affect on the success of startups. It's a fallacy that being in San Fran or NYC actually matters.
- Akarnani 9y agoEven as Silicon Valley was still in its infancy, a group of organizations including Bell, MCI, GM, and others hired Fred Terman from Stanford to make NJ more like what Silicon Valley (NJ and SV share a ton of similarities, i did a tedx talk about it below [1]) but Terman was unsuccessful. He pointed to how Princeton was not focused enough on applied science the way Stanford was. East coast politics and stock market downturn also hindered his efforts. Also, don't forget Fort Monmouth, which was across the county, employed an equal number of scientists and was responsible for nearly as many inventions as Bell Labs (much classified). It was the home of the Army's software and signal operations. Just like Silicon Valley, the military kickstarted the world's most productive innovation cores. New Jersey had (and continues to have) the richest concentration of scientists in the United States. Monmouth County and the Princeton had, for a very long time, the kind of serendipity that makes Silicon Valley so special—that you can walk down the street and bump into a bunch of engineers and VCs while walking your dog and strike up a conversation. State politics in NJ, unfortunately, doesn't nurture these institutions and the ecosystem has grown weaker. It breaks my heart that Bell Labs is a mall and Fort Monmouth lays fallow when it should be bid out to universities to become the Stanford of the East—the applied sciences university that Fred Terman dreamed about. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2LbuqoNGGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2LbuqoNGGI [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monmouth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monmouth [3] http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2012/sep/06/choose-new-jersey/new-jersey-leads-world-number-scientists-engineers/ http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2012/sep/06/...
- mholmes680 9y agoFWIW, I had some good experiences at the Princeton Tech meetups a few years ago, if anyone is in that area: https://www.meetup.com/Princeton-Tech/ https://www.meetup.com/Princeton-Tech/
- joshu 9y agoTerman. How did you do research for the talk without learning the spelling?
- Akarnani 9y ago
- brosirmandude 9y agoInteresting seeing this story this morning, my company recently moved into the old Bell Labs building. Now called Bell Works, it does actually look like it's going to become a hub of new tech companies in the area. It's pretty humbling to walk into this giant building every day knowing some of the amazing things that were invented here.
- happy-go-lucky 9y agoIt must be a great feeling. Imagine transporting yourself back into their time :)
- TarpitCarnivore 9y agoI keep looking for opportunities in Bell Works. I would gladly give up my 2 hour commute from the shore area to NYC to work in Holmdel. I could even ride my bike.
- aswanson 9y agoHoly crap. You drive up from the jersey shore to NYC every day??
- TarpitCarnivore 9y agoI take the train which is 78-80 minutes, but all told it takes 2 hours door to door.
- aswanson 9y agoThere is a train service running from the shore area? From the Atlantic City area? I know there's one out of Trenton.
- vonmoltke 9y ago"The Shore" goes a lot farther north than that. The New Jersey Coast Line runs regular trains from NYC to Long Branch, and has a few trains that go as far as Bay Head (though you need to transfer to get to NYC).
- jaryd 9y agoFor those interested in learning more about Bell Labs I recommend you check out the book "The Idea Factory" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factory https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...).
- kzisme 9y agoI bought this book a few weeks ago because of how interesting Bell Labs was - great recommendation!
- sizzzzlerz 9y agoI saw this and came to make the same recommendation. I just finished this book and it is excellent. As an EE, the chapters on the discovery of the transistor by Brattain and Bardeen up to the experiment where their prototype starts actually amplifying an input signal for the first time represents such a seminal moment in the history of the world. Arguably, it is the most important invention of the 20th century.
- Akarnani 9y agoBob Lucky, who was one of the directors of research at Bell wrote a number of books and this one is a fun read. https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Strikes-Again-Foibles-Engineers/dp/0780304330/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496759352&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Strikes-Again-Foibles-Engineers...
- s73ver 9y agoJust finished it a few weeks ago. One of the better things it does, I think, is show how so many of the people and innovations were intertwined. In truth, getting all of that co-mingling and cross pollination among so many talented individuals is probably one of the Labs' greatest innovations.
- microtherion 9y agoHeadline is nicely illustrated by a friend of mine who visited the US for the first time, travelled to Menlo Park, CA, and was disappointed that he couldn't find Edison's lab.
- robterrin 9y agoAnd before NJ the US tech hub was Baltimore. Information technology has been built into the economic history of the United States for quite some time. The first electronic telegraph ran from DC to Bmore. Prior to the telegraph and it's forerunner, the optical telegraph, the fastest way to transmit goods and information were the Clipper ships coming out of the port of Baltimore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Clipper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Clipper). If you're interested in reading more economic history I highly recommend both The Weather Experiment (https://www.amazon.com/Weather-Experiment-Pioneers-Sought-Future/dp/0374536201 https://www.amazon.com/Weather-Experiment-Pioneers-Sought-Fu...) and Empire of Cotton (https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Cotton-History-Sven-Beckert/dp/0375713964 https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Cotton-History-Sven-Beckert/dp...)
- iamleppert 9y agoI don't know what's more sad, the fact that NJ killed its own tech scene or that the revival efforts shining example focus on a "company that helps people make money on videos they post on social media". That's certainly a far cry from inventing the transistor and pioneering radio. Yep, NJ is still (for now) dead to tech. It reminds me of Columbus, Ohio, which used to be a big Internet and tech hub. Now, only burnt embers and dilapidated warehouses of prior successes remain. The only tech jobs are the fading and hold-over "IT Administrators" at lackluster companies like Nationwide and random health companies. There have been a few scattershot efforts, very familiar to what is happening in NJ to try and get entrepreneurs to "startup" but it's not about the tech anymore. The real creative soul, and passion, love of science and wonderment of the natural world, which is really what fuels tech, is long gone. I'm sorry but social media marketing is a business, not real innovative technology.
- dmix 9y ago> 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. This is probably the biggest influence. SV is built on people who starte working at HP, Microsoft, or Google, then left to found their own company - or straight out of college for the lucky/rich kids like Zuckerberg and Gates. Then there is the wealthy ones who 'made it' sticking around and financing the next generation. This is very likely the entrepreneurial, internally competitive, and experimentally financed system that was never properly established in NJ. New Jersey had their successful golden era, then instead of fostering the next one they focused only on the big companies, acted protective/insular as big companies do, and got government policy to protect their interests from the young upstarts - instead of fostering them.
- ChuckMcM 9y agoA thousand times this. I had a discussion on the plane with a person trying to make their city more like the Bay Area. And they had looked at universities, and air ports, and demographics, and infrastructure. I asked them whether or not their state allowed the enforcement of non-compete agreements? Yes. Do they allow employers to take ownership of all work product even when it is done on the employee's non-work time on non-work equipment? Yes. So I said, first thing you have to do is make both of those 'no', then you can start on the other bits. But allowing people to compete with the people who hired them is essential.
- losteverything 9y agoHow come nobody's mentioned pharma in Jersey's tech history? I can't help but think like Yogi Berra when I look at my own trajectory. Tech overpaid me and tech displaced me. The winds blew west? Will they blow west again for the west coast departure and leave the USA entirely?
- Dowwie 9y agoIt's worth noting that today New Jersey votes for its next governor (primary). Phil Murphy took the time during his campaign to acknowledge the NJ Tech Meetup community (at Stevens Inst. in Hoboken) and has expressed an interest in supporting entrepreneurs. We'll see how the elections go this year and what the next administration does. I'm a NJ native (NYC metro area), active contributor to open source tech communities, and tech-preneur.
- losteverything 9y agoPrimary, not general
- Dowwie 9y agoupdated
- mathattack 9y agoThe magic of silicon valley is an ecosystem where both people and money flock to the hottest ideas. Big companies like AT&T and GM are the antithesis to this.
- prions 9y agoI just stared an internship at Bell Labs Murray Hill. Growing up in Holmdel, I've been a fan of Bell Labs since childhood and feel so happy to be working here. The atmosphere and energy from all the amazing achievements is really palpable. Word is the acquisition of Alcatel Lucent by Nokia has really put Bell Labs back into the public spotlight. Excited to see what the future holds and I hope I can still be a part of it!
- hkmurakami 9y agoCongrats. I grew up new HP Labs and felt the same way when I was an intern there over 10 years ago. :)
- s73ver 9y agoDo they still have signs marking the places where historic things happened? Like the lab where the transistor was invented, or Claude Shannon's office?
- prions 9y agoYes! They also have a museum and a showcase room. I was able to see the first transistor. I believe they're reconstructing Dennis Ritchie's original office. They still have his chalkboard too.
- michaelwsherman 9y agoMake sure you try the pizza at Coppola's at the bottom of Murray Hill on Central Ave.
- omni 9y agoNo discussion on New Jersey's glorious past is complete without a reference to the most passive-aggressive bridge in the world, located in Trenton http://www.usw.org/blog/2015/intro/trenton-pics.jpg http://www.usw.org/blog/2015/intro/trenton-pics.jpg
- draw_down 9y agoPeople often say that about it, but I really like it. Who hasn't felt like that? I feel that way pretty much every day at work.
- exhilaration 9y agoI actually read that as a statement of pride.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- whoisinfosec 9y agoMost of my clients are in NJ, very tech-heavy still.
- nerfhammer 9y agoYea it's tech heavy but not really startup heavy, which seems to be HN's bias. I'm pretty sure Intel and IBM have big campuses there still. Also quite a bit of finance spills over from New York. And lots of tech workers live in NJ and commute over to NY.
- Animats 9y agoBoston's Route 128 was a center of innovation in the minicomputer era. DEC, Data General, Prime, and Wang were all Boston-area companies. None survived the transition to microprocessors.
- jerrylives 9y agoEMC is still kickin
- Fej 9y agoWhy did Jet start here? Legitimate question.
- steego 9y agoI think the founder lived in Montclair, which is where they had their first office. As soon as they could move, they hiked over to Hoboken. That helped them considerably as it allowed them to recruit people who lived in the city as it's just a few blocks from the Path station. Had they set up shop anywhere else in NJ, it would have been difficult for them to hire as quickly as they did.
- mapster 9y agoWhen Franklin Computers dropped their Franklin Ace line they had a huge parking lot sale. Snagged a mess of motherboards and parts to make 5 2e compat machines.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]