The History of Fiber Optics

Fiber optics is a form of technology that employs the use of glass or plastic fibers put inside of a cable to send out data. From there light waves are used to transfer the aforementioned data. Now that we’ve given you a simple definition of fiber optics let’s waste no time in delving into the history of this amazing technology. The building blocks of what’s now fiber optics was laid down in the mid-19^th century.

The 1840’s witnessed famed physicists Jacques Babinet and Jean-Daniel Colladon provide demonstrations on how the travel of light could be manipulated in Paris, France. This enabled the dental field started to create a process called close internal illumination in the early 1900s to better facilitate dental procedures on their patients. Heinrich Lamm a medical student also found a way to use the process in the study of medicine.

The world of media also jumped on this budding technology in the 1920s, Clarence Hansell an inventor and engineer demonstrated an independent study that showed how images could be sent through tubes. John Logie Baird himself an inventor took part in this same study, Baired is most famous for aiding in the advent of television. The 1950s would see a major breakthrough take place when physicist Narinder Singh Kapany conducted studies that had a hand in helping to create optical fiber.

During another medically related study in 1956, researchers at the University of Michigan were the first to introduce a fiber optic semi-flexible gastroscope. This of course allowed for more thorough and precise examinations on patients when examining their stomachs. The result of this invention led to a chain reaction of other related processes applications. As the decade drew to a close major the versatility of the technology was increasing tenfold.

One major breakthrough in the history of fiber optics laid down the foundation for the birth of the internet. Engineer Charles Kao and his colleague George Hockham discovered when controlling the decrease (better known as attenuation) of modern fibers that fiber optics could be used for communicating if attenuation could be lowered to below 20 decibels at each kilometer. This was during the 1960s when both men were working for Standard Telephones and Cables a British based company.

This reduction in the fiber’s attenuation occurred five years later in 1970 by researchers of Corning, Inc. This process was achieved when the researchers doped silica glass with titanium resulting in a fiber that traveled 17 decibels per kilometer. A very short time later the group created another fiber of 4 decibles per kilometer with the main dopant being germanium oxide. These are the technological miracles that enabled the Internet. In today’s day and age the attenuations are drastically lower in optical cables than those found in electrical copper cables. This enables 50-80 kilometers in repeater distances.

The past two decades have seen changes in the fiber optics field that have made the material stronger and more reliable than it’s ever been. In the early 1990’s the burgeoning study of photonic crystals led to photonic crystal fibers being introduced. This material proved to be more efficient and stronger than its predecessor. This proves fiber optics to be one of technology’s greatest triumphs. Its history shows that it continues to reinvent itself with every passing decade and will remain to for years to come.