Operations research at Bell Laboratories through the 1970s: Part III

This historical account of operations research at Bell Laboratories was drafted in the late 1970s when the authors were part of the Operations Research Center within Bell Laboratories at AT&T; it has not previously appeared in the open literature. We have added a few references to later publications that describe particular aspects of the period covered. Discussions of technological practices and organizational arrangements expressed in the present tense represent a viewpoint of about 1980, before ‘divestiture’ split up the Bell System. A comprehensive table of contents for parts I, II, and III can be found in the Online Collection of the Operations Research Home Page, at http://or.pubs.informs.org.