Fame calls on two titans of telephony Bell retirees credit common sense and curiosity

star ledger ^ | 06.19.08 | AMY ELLIS NUTT

[Coleus]

Their names are not well-known and their accomplishments little chronicled, but their inventions changed the world, helping to usher in the era of electronic communication. Without Erna Hoover's computer program for handling telephone traffic, our lives would be filled with busy signals and dropped calls; without Amos Joel's switching invention, there would be no mobile telephone. "He gave us the 'cell' in 'cell phone,'" said Fred Allen, editor of Invention & Technology magazine. In placing a call, "half of what makes it possible -- the switching of cells -- is so fundamental but so difficult."

Last month, the two retired Bell Labs scientists finally got their due. The 90-year-old Joel, who lives in Maplewood, and 82-year-old Hoover, from Summit, were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. When Hoover filed one of the first software patents, in 1971, her computerized telephone switching system almost immediately revolutionized modern communication. The program had a simple purpose, to organize incoming calls to prevent system overload, but it was not simple to invent.

"To my mind it was kind of common sense," said Hoover, who holds a Ph.D. in logic from Yale. "I designed the executive program for handling situations when there are too many calls, to keep it operating efficiently without hanging up on itself. Basically it was designed to keep the machine from throwing up its hands and going berserk." Today, the principle behind her invention enables billions of e-mail messages to be sent each day.

The invention earned her a promotion to supervisor in the systems engineering division, making her the first woman to head a technical department at Bell Labs. "When I was hired, the glass ceiling was somewhere between the basement and the sub-basement," she said with a laugh.

[t1b8zs]

Cool; as a Bell lifer...I like this stuff Thanks

[CHEE]

This is good news as I was led to believe that Bell Lab's innovations, transistors, etc., were the result of preforming reverse engineering of crashed UFOs by the techees at Area 51.

Congratulations and thanks to you pioneers at Bell that make my life much easier (not necessarily better) than it started on a dry Texas farm many decades ago. Hold on a second while I catch my Call Waiting.

[nickcarraway]

I’ve known the Hoover’s for years and they are very nice people.

[Coleus]

what a small world. are they from California?

[nickcarraway]

No, New Jersey.