City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

Appendix A
Dramatis Personae: Cast of Characters
Alferov, Zhores: Russian semiconductor laser pioneer; made first roomtemperature
diode lasers at Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute. Nobel Laureate
in Physics.
American Optical Corporation: Manufacturer of spectacles and optical instruments
founded in nineteenth century that became an early developer of imaging
fiber optics.
Armistead, Bill: Research director at Corning Glass Works.
AT&T: American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, the company founded by
Alexander Graham Bell that was a monopoly in most of America until it
divested local telephone service in 1984. It split off its equipment business in
1996 as Lucent Technologies, leaving AT&T a long-distance phone company.
Babinet, Jacques (1794–1872): French physicist, first to report light guiding
in bent glass rods in 1842.
Baird, John Logie (1888–1946): Scottish inventor of mechanical television,
patented sending an image through array of glass rods in 1920s.
Barlow, Harold: Professor at University College, London; leader in developing
millimeter waveguides.
Bechmann, G.: Chief water engineer for Paris, designer of illuminated fountains
for 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris.
Bell, Alexander Graham (1847–1922): Inventor of the telephone in 1876, and
the Photophone—which sent voices through the air optically—in 1880.
Bell Laboratories: Originally Bell Telephone Laboratories, the research arm of
AT&T when it was America’s telephone monopoly. In 1984, part was divested
as Bellcore, at first owned by the seven regional Bell operating companies.
In 1996, AT&T divested Bell Labs as part of Lucent Technologies,
keeping some operations as AT&T Laboratories.
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