MURRAY HILL, N.J. (WHTM) — On this day in 1954, Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrated the first practical solar panel. The emphasis here is on practical. The photovoltaic (or photoelectric… ...

The solar industry has come of age, developing into a technology that is rapidly replacing coal, oil, and natural gas ...

On April 25, 1954, US researchers presented the first prototype of a usable solar module. ... which was then part of AT&T and now operates under Nokia Bell Labs – calls “the solar cell” one ...

COURTESY OF ALCATEL-LUCENT BELL LABSThe solar battery is an invention of Bell Labs. In this photo, a Southern Bell cable repairman adjusts the device to pick up the prevailing light, Oct. 4, 1955.

If you want to read about a low-tech approach to solar cells invented — and forgotten — 40 years before Bell Labs announced the first practical silicon solar cell, we can’t promis… ...

Thank you, Bell Labs, for that . . . and for fax machines, solar cells, digital cameras, and don't forget Telstar, the first satellite to transmit television pictures.

Bell Labs sufficed as the country’s ... After that came the first silicon solar cell; the theory for ... Those breakthrough products of past decades—the earliest silicon solar cells, ...

Bell built the first transistorized computer and, of course, has greatly improved phone service. The labs boast over 26,000 patents and eleven Nobel Prize winners.

Bell Labs was hugely important to innovation in the 20th century. If you can imagine a freak merger of Facebook, Apple, and Google, you’d have some sense of its impact in its day.