Fifty Years of BSTJ

DEVOTED TO T H E SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS OF ELECTRICAL COMMUNICATION July-August 1972 Telephone and Telegraph Fifty Years of BSTJ It is appropriate, on this fiftieth anniversary of the founding of BSTJ, to recall the genesis and purpose of the publication, as set forth in the Foreword to Vol. 1, No. 1, of July 1922 (see opposite page). This perceptive and prophetic note by the founders of the BSTJ states clearly their conviction that the art of telecommunication would require the ever-increasing application of scientific knowledge and the scientific method, and that this effort would, in turn, expand the boundaries of human knowledge in many fields. The BSTJ was planned to make these advances available to the world, treating a range of subjects as broad as the "science and technique of electrical communication itself." How well has BSTJ performed this function? How best to catch the excitement and import of the technical papers that span these fifty years? One approach is to select a few out of the many outstanding papers to illustrate the forward thrust of telecommunications over the period. (See foldout.) The early days From the beginning, BSTJ authors saw their primary goal as extending the depth of understanding, and particularly of quantitative understanding, of the science and technology involved - to lay a solid foundation for the ever-growing nationwide telecommunication network. This quantitative base extended from Harvey Fletcher's paper on "The Nature of Speech and Its Interpretation" to articles such as George Campbell's "Physical Theory of the Electric Wave-Filter," Harry Nyquist's "Certain Factors Affecting Telegraph Speed," and Clinton Davisson's "The Discovery of Electron Waves." With a systems view the fundamentals of a network combining efficient transmission and switching were worked out.