City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

NOTES TO PAGES 166–168 309
‘‘British push R&D on fiber telecom link’’ Industrial Research, Jan. 1971, pp. 33–
34.
33. John N. Kessler, interview Dec. 17, 1996; John N. Kessler, ‘‘Fiber optics
sharpens focus on laser communications,’’ Electronics, July 5, 1971, pp. 46–52.
34. Kessler, ‘‘Fiber optics sharpens focus.’’
35. David Pearson, telephone interview, Feb. 16, 1995.
36. Fiber drawing research was put under Alan G. Chynoweth, director of
materials research at Murray Hill. Tingye Li, telephone interview, Jan. 8, 1997;
also Paul Lazay, interview, Nov. 12, 1996.
37. Julian Stone, telephone interview, June 28, 1996; his published report
plots attenuation on a curve but does not cite the number. See Julian Stone,
‘‘Optical transmission in liquid-core quartz fibers,’’ Applied Physics Letters 20,
pp. 239–240 (Apr. 1, 1972). (The liquid-core fiber had higher loss than the Corning
fiber at the 633-nanometer wavelength of a helium-neon laser; the minimum
was at longer wavelengths where the Corning fiber suffered from impurity absorption.)
38. Graeme Ogilvie, a metallurgist at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial
Research Organization (CSIRO), had been working on very transparent organic
compounds when he heard of Kao’s proposal. Rod Esdaile telephone interview,
June 6, 1996. G. J. Ogilvie, R. J. Esdaile, and G. P. Kidd, ‘‘Transmission loss
of tetrachloroethylene-filled liquid-core-fiber light guide,’’ Electronics Letters 8, No.
22, pp. 533–534 (Nov. 2, 1972).
39. D. N. Payne and W. A. Gambling, ‘‘The preparation of multimode glassand
liquid-core optical fibres,’’ Opto-electronics 5, pp. 297–307 (1973); in a June
9, 1995, telephone interview William Alec Gambling said they eventually reached
4 decibels per kilometer, but this evidently was not published.
40. The practical problems included the many hours needed to fill a long,
extremely thin tube with liquid, and the large difference in thermal expansion
between glass and liquid. As the temperature changed, the liquid expanded or
contracted like mercury in a thermometer, pushing out or pulling away from the
ends of the tube [Esdaile, telephone interview; Gambling, interview; W. A. Gambling,
‘‘Optical fibres: the Southampton scene,’’ IEE Proceedings 133 J, pp. 205–
210 (June 1986)].
41. Peter Kaiser, E. A. J. Marcatili, and S. E. Miller, ‘‘A new optical fiber,’’ Bell
System Technical Journal 52 pp. 265–269 (Feb. 1973).
42. Ray Jaeger, lecture notes from 1994 talk, personal communication.
43. Peter Kaiser et al., ‘‘Spectral losses of unclad vitreous silica and soda-lime
silicate fibers,’’ Journal of the Optical Society of America 63, pp. 1141–1148 (Sept.
1973).
44. Lazay interview.
45. Henry Marcatili, telephone interview, Jan. 3, 1997.
46. Peter Kaiser, telephone interview, May 17, 1995.
47. Miller, ‘‘Optical communications.’’
48. Charles A. Burrus and B. I. Miller, ‘‘Small-area double-heterostructure
aluminum-gallium-arsenide electroluminescent diode sources for optical-fiber
transmission lines,’’ Optics Communications 4, pp. 307–309 (Dec. 1971).
49. Reeves, ‘‘The future of telecommunications.’’
50. Stewart E. Miller, Enrique A. J. Marcatili, and Tingye Li, ‘‘Research toward
optical fiber transmission systems’’ (2 parts), Proceedings of the IEEE, Dec. 1973,
pp. 1703–1751.