History
Of all the pioneers of this industry, none stand out as the primary leader of discovery or development. This competitive environment was an integral part of this field's progress. Not all discoveries were harbored as proprietary. There was a great deal of information that flowed amongst the leading scientists developing this technology. Here are some of the key players and some of their contributions:
Claude Chappe, French Engineer invented the Optical Telegraph, which used a series of semaphores mounted on towers to relay messages between towers
Alexander Graham Bell,patented an optical telephone system in 1880. Not a very practical invention that was superseded by wired communications, which were more effective at the time.
Daniel Collodon and Jacques Babinet were able to show that light could be guided along jets of water.
John Logie Baird (ENG.) and Clarence W. Hansell (U.S.) patented the idea of using arrays of hollow pipes or transparent rods to transmit images for television or fascimile systems.
Heinrich Lamm was the first person to demonstrate image transmission through a bundle of optical fibers.
Holger Moeller applied for a Danish patent on fiber-optic imaging, but was denied based on other research
Abraham Van Heel and Harold H. Hopkins presented imaging bundles in the British Journal Nature at separate times.Van Heel later produced a cladded fiber system that greatly reduced signal interference and crosstalk between fibers
Brian O'Brien American physicist who inspired and collaborated with Van Heel on the cladding concept.
C.Wilbur Peters, physician Basil Hirschowitz and Lawrence Curtiss developed glass clad fibers while pursuing the development of the endoscope for inspecting the stomach.
Alec Reeves invented digital pulse-code modulation, which was an integral part of optical communications. He further theorized that higher frequencies were possible for fiber optic communications.
Stewart Miller's group at Bell Labs worked to develop gas lenses to focus laser beams along hollow waveguides for long distance communications
Charles K. Kao focused his study on fiber attenuation and the ability to reduce the signal losses. He theorized that the eventual loss of signal could be reduced to less than 20 db per kilometer. At that time, the average loss was about 1000 db per kilometer. With this published position the industry embraced this challenge and were able achieve this attenuation threshhold within four years or so.
Physics Of Optics
While investigating the use of fiber optic technology, it is important to understand the fundamental rules of optics. Some of the leading scientists of their time viewed light from two main perspectives.
All fields of science affects the lives of many people, but the inventors are left out. Inventors make many lives more comfortable and convenient. George Edward Alcorn, Jr. was a not so well-known inventor, but he...
...Optica and Dioptrice, laying the groundwork for all future optical discoveries to come. After him came Newton, who questioned the commonly held belief about light and discovered a fundamental property of how light worked and what prisms did. Fraunhofer had spent his whole life working with the same optical principles as Kepler. He performed the same experiment as Newton, but he explored further, and opened up whole new worlds of discovery. Today, we still use spectroscopy and Fraunhofer lines to determine what far off planets and stars are made of, and if it would be possible for life to exist on them. Thanks to the discovery of Fraunhofer lines, Niels Bohr was able to come up with his model of the atom, expanding our knowledge of how the universe works. All of these scientific discoveries were built on top of one another, and who knows what we will discover next?
In 1877, Edison created his favorite invention of all; the phonograph. Edison actually created this by accident while trying to make a telephone, but after he finally perfected it, everyone wanted to know about how it worked. It became popular so quickly, that he was even invited to the White House to show off his new and unusual machine that mimicked sounds
Samuel Morse contributed many things to American society. In 1832 when returning from Europe from a period of art study on the ship Sully, Samuel overheard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnets and came up with the idea of an electric telegraph. By 1835 he had his first telegraph model working in the New York University building. In 1837, he acquired two partners to help him develop his telegraph. Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail were the two men that he chose. They applied for a patent in 1837 for the telegraph, which included the dot and dash code.
Morse was a very friendly guy. Being a natural leader, he was a founder and the first president of the National Academy of Design, but lost his campaigns to become mayor of New York or a Congressman. In 1832, while returning on the ship from another period of studying art in Europe, Morse heard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnet and got the idea of an electric telegraph. He mistakenly thought that the idea of such a telegraph was new, helping to give him the go ahead and push the idea forward. By 1835 he probably had his first telegraph model working in the New York University building where he taught art.
Philips made a strong push to developing new technologies starting in the 1950s and 1960s. Upon doing so, the company also wanted to translate these technologies into products while adapting, producing, and selling these products within individual national markets. During this time period, most of the companies in the electrical products market were bring formed and racing to diversify. However, Philips decided to stick with what they knew best. They made only light-bulbs. In doing so, their strong focus enabled the company to create significant innovations. Continuing on, Philips also became a leader in industrial research by creating physics and chemistry labs to address both production and scientific problems. The labs developed a tungsten metal filament bulb that brought great commercial success. Philips simple structure and significant innovations gave them the financial support they needed to compete in a time period where competitors were seeking major growth.
In September 1959 DiVita asked 2nd Lt. Richard Sturzebecher if he knew of a way to produce a strong glass fiber that would be capable of carrying a light signal. Sturzebecher had melted 3 triaxil glass systems together for his senior exam at Alfred University. In his exam, Sturzebecher had used SiO2, a glass powder produced by Corning. Whenever he had tried to look at the substance through a microscope he would end up with headache. Sturzebecher realized that these headaches came from the high amounts of white light produced from the microscopes light that was reflected through the eyepiece via the SiO2. SiO2 would be an ideal substance for transmitting strong light signals if it could be developed into a strong fibre.
Hall of Fame. National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1 Feb. 2002. Web. 11 May 2010. .
From these painting we jump to 1838 with stereoscope and then the view master in 1839. The stereoscope is a device that showed two side by side images or photos that gave the person using the steroscope a sense of immersion. The stereoscope was created by Charles Wheatstone, but then one year later William Gruber approved upon the idea of
Williams, B. 1999. A History of Light and Lighting. [online] Available at: http://www.mts.net/~william5/history/hol.htm [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].
Although telescopes has been around for several hundreds of years, there has been great discrepancy as to who invented it first. Here is one authors opinion. Lippershey was a Dutch spectacle marker during the early 17th century (approximately 1600). He was one of the first who created the "looker" (now called telescope) by placing two pieces of lenses together. The discovery that placing lenses together can magnify images were made by children who took Lippershey's spectacles and looked at a distant church tower.
The cylinder phonograph proved to be successful, but the problem with the machine was that the tin foil only allowed a few uses. With the help of another great inventor, new advances could be made to improve this invention. The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, had set up a laboratory for his cousin, Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter. Bell a...
On June 21, 1890, Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner invented a wireless telephone, named a photo phone. This photo phone allowed the transmission of both sound and huma...
Refraction of Light Aim: To find a relationship between the angles of incidence and the angles of refraction by obtaining a set of readings for the angles of incidence and refraction as a light ray passes from air into perspex. Introduction: Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters a medium where it's speed is different. The refraction of light when it passes from a fast medium to a slow medium bends the light ray toward the normal to the boundary between the two media. The amount of bending depends on the indices of refraction of the two media and is described quantitatively by Snell's Law. (Refer to diagram below)