While Bell Labs did do some laboratory science (where they developed the transistor among other things), the majority of researchers there were mathematicians and computer scientists who don't work in a lab.
A laboratory is the place where you work. From the latin 'laborare', roughly translated 'to work'. A CS grad student would work in a lab. As would a carpenter. The difference between an office and a laboratory is usually that there are specialized tools in a laboratory.
not sure what your point is certainly BT's eqvielent at martelsham was now for its style of dress we even had an internal slang term the "martelman" to describe them :-)
I was replying to the person that that was saying that their idea of lab dress was a lab coat and jeans -- a different sort of lab than what most of what Bell Labs was about.
