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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290 NOTES TO PAGES 65–70<br />
18. Court papers indicate Hicks continued some plastic-cladding experiments<br />
into 1957. (Board <strong>of</strong> Patent Interferences, Norton v. Curtiss).<br />
19. Hicks interview. Although Hicks didn’t realize it at the time, a German<br />
named Armand Lamesch had patented the idea a decade earlier as a way <strong>of</strong><br />
strengthening glass fibers. See Armand Lamesch, US Patent 2,313,296; ‘‘<strong>Fiber</strong> or<br />
filament <strong>of</strong> glass,’’ filed Sept. 23, 1937 (in Germany Sept. 30, 1936), issued Mar.<br />
9, 1943.<br />
20. Curtiss telephone interview. Feb. 7, 1994.<br />
21. Lawrence E. Curtiss, interview, Jan. 20, 1995.<br />
22. Curtiss letter; Hirschowitz, ‘‘A personal history.’’<br />
23. Basil I. Hirschowitz, US Patent 3,010,357, ‘‘Flexible light transmitting<br />
tube,’’ filed Dec. 28, 1956; issued Nov. 28, 1961.<br />
24. Lawrence E. Curtiss, US Patent 3,589,793, ‘‘Glass fiber optical devices,’’<br />
filed May 6, 1957, issued June 29, 1971. Norton and American Optical bitterly<br />
fought this patent in court, delaying it for well over a decade and setting a record<br />
for most voluminous patent litigation!<br />
25. Hirschowitz, ‘‘A personal history.’’<br />
26. Curtiss telephone interview, Feb. 7, 1994.<br />
27. Avery Jones letter.<br />
28. Hirschowitz had to settle for a post at the less prestigious University <strong>of</strong><br />
Alabama at Huntsville. Martin Carey, telephone interview, May 7, 1996.<br />
29. That instrument is now at the Smithsonian Institution. Basil I. Hirschowitz,<br />
‘‘Demonstration <strong>of</strong> a new gastroscope, the ‘fiberscope,’ ’’ Gastroenterology 35,<br />
pp. 50–53 (July 1958).<br />
30. Hirschowitz, ‘‘A personal history.’’ p. 867.<br />
31. Hirschowitz, ‘‘Demonstration.’’<br />
32. <strong>The</strong> exact timing was the subject <strong>of</strong> lengthy patent litigation when American<br />
Optical tried unsuccessfully to block Curtiss’s patent. Although Norton<br />
claimed to have made his suggestion in October 1956, the court ruled he could<br />
not document invention before early 1957. See Board <strong>of</strong> Patent Interferences,<br />
Norton v. Curtiss.<br />
33. Hicks interview.<br />
34. Ibid.<br />
35. Bill Wetherell, conversation, January or February 1994.<br />
36. Robert Greenler, telephone interview, Sept. 18, 1995.<br />
37. <strong>The</strong> series started with Narinder S. Kapany, ‘‘<strong>Fiber</strong> optics. Part I, Optical<br />
properties <strong>of</strong> certain dielectric cylinders,’’ Journal <strong>of</strong> the Optical Society <strong>of</strong> America<br />
47, pp. 413–422 (May 1957), and eventually reached part XI in 1965.<br />
38. A bibliography published when he won the Ives award lists 51 papers, but<br />
some were abstracts or co-authored and many were published in the 1930s.<br />
‘‘Brian O’Brien, Frederic Ives Medalist for 1951,’’ Journal <strong>of</strong> the Optical Society <strong>of</strong><br />
America 41, No. 12, pp. 879–881 (Dec. 1951). People who knew him later recall<br />
he never got around to publishing much.<br />
39. Walter Siegmund, interview, June 29, 1993.<br />
40. Lawrence E. Curtiss, telephone interview, Aug. 6, 1997.<br />
41. Figures derived by author from Robert J. Potter and Cecelia E. Beasor, ‘‘<strong>The</strong><br />
history and evolution <strong>of</strong> fiber optics,’’ paper presented at the SPIE <strong>Fiber</strong> <strong>Optics</strong><br />
Seminar in Depth, Apr. 29, 1968, Baltimore.<br />
42. Narinder S. Kapany, ‘‘<strong>Fiber</strong> optics,’’ Scientific American 203, No. 5, pp. 72–<br />
81 (Nov. 1960).