City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

TRYING TO SELL A DREAM 129
‘‘In series,’’ replied Sandbank cautiously.
‘‘Why not in parallel?’’ Cookson asked.
‘‘That will cost a lot of money,’’ replied a startled Sandbank.
‘‘Yes, but it will speed up the program,’’ was the response.
That night, Sandbank revised his plan, doubling or tripling the budget, but
fully expecting the number to be cut. He was amazed the next day when
Cookson said: ‘‘That looks like a good program, Charlie.’’
Later Sandbank learned the impetus for the expansion came from the very
top. Harold Geneen, the legendary businessman who built ITT into a global
conglomerate, had read an article predicting fiber optics would become the
most important advance in telecommunications since the transistor. Noting
the development came from ‘‘STL in Harlow,’’ Geneen asked, ‘‘Is that our
STL in Harlow?’’ Told it was, he asked pointedly, ‘‘Well, how is this optical
fiber program?’’ That greased the wheels for a budget increase. 58
Signs of Slow Progress
The technological boom of the 1960s, fueled most visibly by the space race
and less obviously by Cold War military programs, began to wind down after
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in the summer of 1969. The sustaining
forces of money, mind-set, and momentum began to dissipate. The space program
lost direction. America’s love affair with technology faded as the curtains
were stripped away from the ugly realities of pollution and the machinery
of nuclear Armageddon. The economy sputtered and slowed.
Telecommunications had it easy in comparison. Slower growth left more
time for semiconductors to approach the frequencies needed to build millimeter
waveguides linking the world’s great cities in the 1970s. AT&T had
high hopes to revive demand with its Picturephone system, a highlight of the
1964 World’s Fair in New York. Bell Labs was working on laser communications
to deliver a new generation of even higher capacity systems in the
1980s and beyond. Miller and Kompfner still expected the beams to go
through gas lenses or confocal lens waveguides, but fiber optics had joined
the race as a dark horse.
Charles Kao had eloquently sold his dream. His success came partly from
offering the attractive prospect of a flexible waveguide, and partly from his
experimental tour de force in measuring the incredible clarity of fused silica.
A small cadre of other key scientists and engineers around the world were
convinced that fiber loss could be reduced. While the Post Office, STL, Pearson
at Bell Labs, and the Japanese stood in the forefront, others labored quietly,
including Bob Maurer, who had built a little team of young scientists at
Corning.
However, by the spring of 1970 others were coming to suspect fiber attenuation
was inevitably high. Theorists suggested minor irregularities in the
core-cladding interface might scatter light into modes that leaked out of the
cladding. 59 Miller emphasized gas lenses and hollow waveguides when he