Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ

Bell Laboratories (also known as Bell Labs and formerly as Bell Telephone Laboratories and AT&T Bell Laboratories) is an American research and scientific development company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Now it belongs to Nokia. Historically the company originated from the Volta Laboratory and Bureau created by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 19th century. It was a division of American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1925–1996. Researchers working at Bell Labs invented radio astronomy, transistors, lasers, information theory, UNIX operating system, C and C++ programming languages and numerous other crucial technologies. Overall, they received eight Nobel Prizes for work completed at Bell Labs. In 1957, Max Mathews developed MUSIC, a first computer program to generate digital audio waveforms through direct synthesis. This invention played a crucial role in the development of modern computer music. Also, Radiodrum (or radio-baton) was invented at Bell Labs in the 1980s – an electronic music instrument played in three-dimensional space using two snare drum sticks with wires.