City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics
City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics
City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics
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280 NOTES TO PAGES 13–17<br />
6. Daniel Colladon, ‘‘On the reflections <strong>of</strong> a ray <strong>of</strong> light inside a parabolic liquid<br />
stream,’’ Comptes Rendus 15, (Oct. 24, 1842), pp. 800–802, translated by Julian<br />
A. Carey, Apr. 1, 1995.<br />
7. René Sigrist, cites an unpublished manuscript by Pierre Speziali; (personal<br />
communication, Oct. 10, 1995), Colladon’s Comptes Rendus paper cites a London<br />
demonstration but does not say who conducted it.<br />
8. Colladon cited experiments by Joseph Plateau, who steered light around<br />
curves in a different way. See Joseph Plateau, ‘‘On a curious consequence <strong>of</strong> the<br />
laws <strong>of</strong> light’s reflection,’’ Bulletins de l’Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres<br />
de Bruxelles IX 2d, Partie (1842), pp. 10–14, read July 4, 1842, translated by<br />
Jean-Louis Trudel.<br />
9. A device he invented to measure polarization, called a Babinet Compensator,<br />
is still widely used by optical specialists. Dictionary <strong>of</strong> Scientific Biography (Vol. I,<br />
‘‘Jacques Babinet,’’ pp. 357–358).<br />
10. Jacques Babinet, ‘‘Note on the transmission <strong>of</strong> light by sinuous canals,’’<br />
Comptes Rendus #15, (Oct. 24, 1842) p. 802, translated by Julian A. Carey, Apr.<br />
1, 1995; also Kaye Weedon, unpublished manuscript.<br />
11. T. K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams, A Short History <strong>of</strong> Technology: From the<br />
Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 (Dover, New York, 1993 (reprint <strong>of</strong> 1960 edition),<br />
pp. 84–85).<br />
12. Specimen in Corning Glass Museum.<br />
13. <strong>The</strong> colors <strong>of</strong> the rainbow come from a combination <strong>of</strong> two effects: total<br />
internal reflection and differences in the refractive index <strong>of</strong> water with wavelength.<br />
<strong>Light</strong> rays that enter a water droplet are reflected back around the sphere,<br />
emerging back toward the sun (which is why we see the rainbow when the sun<br />
is behind us). Water refracts different wavelengths at different angles, so the<br />
angle at which the light rays emerge depends on their wavelength, creating the<br />
rainbow.<br />
14. René Sigrist, personal communications, Oct. 10, 1995, and Nov. 13,<br />
1995, citing Pierre Speziali, ‘‘La physique,’’ in Jacques Trembley, ed., Les Savants<br />
Genevois dans l’Europe intellectuelle (Journal de Geneva, Geneva, 1987, p. 154).<br />
15. David E. Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings <strong>of</strong> New Technology (MIT<br />
Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1990); see chap. 2, ‘‘<strong>The</strong> Great White Way.’’<br />
16. Gösta M. Bergman, <strong>Light</strong>ing in the <strong>The</strong>atre (Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa,<br />
N.J.; and Almqvist & Wiskell International, Stockholm, 1977, pp. 278–280).<br />
17. ‘‘Preparations for the holding <strong>of</strong> the international health exposition,’’ Nature,<br />
Feb. 21, 1884, pp. 388–389; Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., Dictionary<br />
<strong>of</strong> National Biography: Vol. 22 Supplement (Oxford University Press, London,<br />
pp. 230–231).<br />
18. Bolton was not a specialist in optics, and the importance <strong>of</strong> total internal<br />
reflection may have eluded him. It definitely eluded the writers <strong>of</strong> contemporary<br />
accounts, and it takes careful analysis <strong>of</strong> published drawings to deduce how the<br />
fountains guided light. ‘‘Illumination <strong>of</strong> fountains by the electric light,’’ Scientific<br />
American Supplement #847, p. 7774 (May 2, 1885).<br />
19. ‘‘<strong>The</strong> fountains at the health exhibition,’’ <strong>The</strong> Illustrated London News, Aug.<br />
2, 1884, p. 106.<br />
20. ‘‘Health Exhibition-X: the electrically illuminated fountain,’’ <strong>The</strong> Electrician<br />
13, pp. 456–457 (Sept. 27, 1884); ‘‘<strong>The</strong> illuminated fountains at the Healtheries,’’<br />
Nature, Nov. 6, 1884, pp. 11–12.<br />
21. D. Colladon, ‘‘La Fontaine Colladon,’’ La Nature, 2nd half year 1884,