City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

13
A Demonstration for the Queen
(1970–1975)
The glass-fibre guide ...will be very cheap, small, and
flexible. With the increasing confidence that the attenuation
can be reduced to an acceptable figure it is certainly the
most promising form of light guide for long-distance optical
communication links.
—Martin Chown, Standard Telecommunication Labs,
July 1970 1
The low loss which is attractive for long-range applications
can only be achieved if the light propagates partly or completely
in vacuum or gas.
—Detlef Gloge, Bell Labs,
October 1970 2
We have seen that low-loss glass fibers can be made; we
must make them in usable form. We must have semiconductor
lasers as inexpensive commercial devices rather
than as laboratory miracles.
—John R. Pierce, Bell Labs, address at Centenary of
Institution of Electrical Engineers, May 17, 1971 3
T he low-loss optical fiber and the room-temperature semiconductor laser
made 1970 a very good year for fiber-optic communications. Although
both developments would prove crucial, at the time it was painfully obvious
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