September - October 2001

Engineering Hall of Fame:

Managing the Semiconductor Revolution: Jack Morton of Bell Labs

by David Morton, Ph.D.

Success in engineering is the product of many factors, not all of them purely technical. A key to the success of major research and development projects is the management of resources and people. One of the most successful managers in the electrical engineering field was Jack Morton of Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Morton joined Bell Labs in 1936 and made notable achievements in microwave tube design. Around 1948, he spearheaded a group created to transform the newly invented transistor into a reliable product that could be manufactured economically. He set up a small production line that could turn out copies of the first transistor (called simply "Type A") to satisfy sample requests. But sensing that the point-contact transistor would never prove reliable, Morton encouraged his team to develop something better.

Ultimately, Morton led a team that perfected the junction transistor, a simple, reliable alternative that made semiconductor devices truly "solid state." By the early 1950s, he also advocated sharing the secrets of transistor production with other firms, a move that contributed significantly to the electronics industry's transition from vacuum tubes to semiconductors.

Morton Did Not Rest on His Laurels

Following Bell Labs' invention of the diffused-base transistor in the mid-1950s, Morton became convinced that silicon was a superior transistor material and encouraged research on diffused silicon diodes and transistors, even though germanium had been widely adopted in the industry. In 1955, he rushed a diffused silicon diode to the fabrication facility of Western Electric (AT&T's manufacturing arm at the time) in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This move characterized his pragmatic approach to commercializing Lab products.

Morton's faith in the future of silicon devices was illustrated further when Bell Labs included silicon techniques as a major topic at the 1956 technical symposia it sponsored for its transistor patent licensees. Some of these firms took notice. Texas Instruments would later get credit for the first commercially successful silicon transistor, but the pioneering work that proved silicon could compete with germanium was partly attributable to Morton's dogged managerial advocacy.

Did Reputation Cloud His Achievements?

In 1958, after a decade of transistor development, Morton announced that the device had entered a phase of "maturity." And at vice president of the electronic components development division, so, it seemed had his career. Morton had gained a national reputation as a demanding — some thought irascible — manager.

In a 1961 Business Week article, Morton declared that solid-state electronics manufacturing would soon become the largest industry in America, even surpassing the steel and automobile industries. During the 1960s, he managed what was widely considered the world's premier group of device researchers and helped lead Bell Labs to what was arguably its peak.

Morton's life came to an untimely and unusual end. In late 1971, at the age of 58, he was found dead in a burning car by the side of the road in Neshanic Station, New Jersey. None of the major newspapers carried the story, and the obituary published in the Bell Laboratories Record, perhaps out of deference to his family, made no mention of the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death.

David Morton, Ph.D., works at the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University. Visit the IEEE History Center's Web page at: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/.