City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

APPENDIX B 267
transmitting signals through quartz or glass rods,
issued May 9, 1950.
Circa 1949: Holger Møller Hansen in Denmark and Abraham
C. S. van Heel at the Technical University of Delft
begin investigating image transmission through
bundles of parallel glass fibers.
April 11, 1951: Holger Møller Hansen applies for a Danish patent on
fiber-optic imaging in which he proposes cladding
glass or plastic fibers with a transparent low-index
material. Patent claim is denied because of Hansell
patent.
October 1951: Brian O’Brien (University of Rochester) suggests to
van Heel that applying a transparent cladding
would improve transmission of fibers in his imaging
bundle.
July 1952: Harold Horace Hopkins applies for a grant from the
Royal Society to develop bundles of glass fibers for
use as an endoscope at Imperial College of Science
and Technology. Hires Narinder S. Kapany as an
assistant after he receives grant.
Early 1953: O’Brien joins American Optical as vice president and
research director. His top priority is developing a
wide-screen movie system for promoter Mike Todd;
fiber optics is sidetracked.
Spring 1953: Hopkins tells Fritz Zernicke his idea of fiber bundles;
Zernicke tells van Heel, who decides to publish
quickly.
May 21, 1953: Nature receives brief paper by van Heel on simple
bundles of clad fibers.
June 12, 1953: Dutch-language weekly De Ingeneur publishes van
Heel’s first report of clad fiber.
November 22, 1953: Nature receives paper on bundles of unclad fibers for
imaging written by Hopkins and Kapany.
January 2, 1954: Nature publishes papers by Hopkins and Kapany and
by van Heel. The long delay of the van Heel paper
has never been explained.
1954: Basil Hirschowitz visits Hopkins and Kapany in London
from the University of Michigan.
September 1954: American Optical hires Will Hicks to develop fiberoptic
image scramblers, proposed by O’Brien to the
Central Intelligence Agency.
Summer 1955: Kapany completes doctoral thesis on fiber optics under
Hopkins, moves to University of Rochester.
Summer 1955: Hirschowitz and C. Wilbur Peters hire undergraduate
student Larry Curtiss to work on their fiber-optic
endoscope project.