City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

NOTES TO PAGES 39–44 285
21. Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr., Radio’s 100 Men of Science (Harper & Brothers Publishers,
New York, 1944, pp. 269–272).
22. James Hillier, telephone interview, May 19, 1994.
23. Clarence W. Hansell, US Patent 1,751,584, ‘‘Picture transmission,’’ filed
Aug. 13, 1927, issued Mar. 25, 1930.
24. Hansell notebook dated Apr. 11, 1925–Sep. 12, 1930, Clarence Weston
Hansell Collection, Special Collections Dept., State University of New York, Stony
Brook.
25. Daniel M. Costigan, Electronic Delivery of Documents and Graphics (Van Nostrand
Reinhold, New York, 1978), p. 5.
26. Howard Rosenthal, telephone interview, May 19, 1994.
27. Patricia (Hansell), Sisler, telephone interview, Dec. 29, 1995.
28. William P. Vogel, Jr., ‘‘Inventing is vision plus work,’’ Popular Science, Oct.
1947, pp. 97–101.
29. The physician was Adolf Kussmaul. Basil I. Hirschowitz, ‘‘Development
and application of endoscopy,’’ Gastroenterology 104, pp. 337–342 (1993).
30. Unnamed source, quoted in H. H. Hopkins, ‘‘Optics in clinical medicine,’’
presidential address, physics and mathematics section, British Association meeting,
Sept. 1977, typed manuscript.
31. Audrey B. Davis, ‘‘Rudolf Schindler’s role in the development of gastroscopy,’’
Bulletin of the History of Medicine 46, No. 2, pp. 150–170 (Mar.–Apr.
1972).
32. Hirschowitz, ‘‘Development.’’
33. Sam Carter, MD, telephone interview, Sept. 9, 1994; he remembers taking
a course from a Prof. Rose who in the 1930s had a solid ‘‘bundle that looked like
a garden house,’’ 8 to 10 feet long. ‘‘He put a light source at one end of it ...
and by golly ...thelight would show up at the end of the bundle.’’
34. Heinrich Lamm, ‘‘Biegsame optische Geräte’’ (Flexible optical instruments),
Zeitschrift fur Instrumentenkunde 50, pp. 579–581 (1930), translated by Lamm
many years later.
35. Lamm, ‘‘Biegsame optische Geräte,’’ p. 580.
36. The British patent was a duplicate of Hansell’s American patent; RCA
assigned the British rights to the Marconi Company as part of a broader patent
agreement. The British patent was issued before the American one. Clarence Weston
Hansell, British Patent 295,601, ‘‘Improvements in or relating to means for
transmitting radiant energy such as light and to apparatus for use therewith,’’
filed Aug. 13, 1928, accepted Feb. 21, 1929 (US Patent 1,751,584, ‘‘Picture
transmission,’’ filed Aug. 13, 1927, issued Mar. 25, 1930).
37. Lamm, ‘‘Biegsame optische Geräte,’’ p. 581.
38. Almost 30 years later, Schindler was in the audience at a small conference
where the first successful gastroscope was described. He stood up after the talk,
and recalled that Lamm had suggested the idea in 1928 or 1929. ‘‘We put bundles
of glass fibers together, but we failed. ...There was not yet any coating and, more
important, we lacked the advice of physicists . . .’’ (Basil I. Hirschowitz et al, ‘‘Demonstration
of a new gastroscope, the ‘fiberscope,’ ’’ Gastroenterology 35 pp. 50–53,
July 1958, Schindler quoted in discussion section, p. 52). Unless Schindler had
forgotten Gerlach’s help, that indicates Lamm worked with the physicist independently.
Lamm may have turned to Gerlach after early experiments with Schindler
failed. Schindler was quite busy with other activities at the time, including perfecting
his own semi-rigid gastroscope and conducting the Physicians’ Orchestra