City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

NOTES TO PAGES 178–183 313
12. A series of papers giving formal results appeared two years later in Bell
System Technical Journal 57 (July–Aug. 1978).
13. Rich Cerny, interview, Jan. 9, 1997.
14. ‘‘James Godbey dies at 43, a founder of Valtec Corp,’’ Laser Focus, Jan.
1979, p. 74.
15. Eric Randall, telephone interview, Feb. 18, 1997.
16. Paul Dobson, telephone interview, Feb. 21, 1997.
17. Ibid.
18. Cerny interview.
19. James Barron, ‘‘Irving B. Kahn, 76, a founder of TelePrompTer and cable
TV’’ obituary, New York Times, Jan. 25, 1994, p. B8.
20. Account based on industry sources and personal observations.
21. ‘‘Insilco plans venture in fiber optics field, will own 51% of firm,’’ Wall
Street Journal, Dec. 3, 1976, p. 25.
22. Kahn made a killing when he sold his interest back to Insilco in late 1979.
The deal was so embarrassing to company officials that Insilco carefully avoided
disclosing either the price or the identities of the selling stockholders. (‘‘Insilco
buys remainder of firm,’’ Wall Street Journal, Sept. 24, 1979, p. 38). However, that
was Irving Kahn’s last hurrah in fiber optics. He had also started a company to
make semiconductor lasers but was never able to take it public—according to
industry insiders, because the Securities and Exchange Commission frowned on
having a convicted felon as the chairman of a public company. None of his other
fiber ventures panned out, and he returned to cable television. His obituary does
not mention fiber optics; Barron, ‘‘Irving B. Kahn.’’
23. Ira Jacobs, interview, Nov. 19, 1996.
24. M. I. Schwartz et al., ‘‘Bell’s Chicago fiber optic test,’’ Laser Focus 14, No.
1, pp. 58–64 (Jan. 1978); M. I. Schwartz et al., ‘‘The Chicago Lightwave Communications
Project,’’ Bell System Technical Journal 57, No. 6, pp. 1881–1888
(July–Aug. 1978). Four fibers were broken during cabling, not installation.
25. John Fulenwider, telephone interview, Feb. 7, 1997.
26. ‘‘PS-noted in passing: communication applications,’’ Laser Focus 13, No.
7, p. 70 (July 1977).
27. John Midwinter, interview, Dec. 5, 1994.
28. Ronald W. Berry, David J. Brace, and Ivon A. Ravenscroft, ‘‘Optical fiber
system trials at 8 Mbits/s and 140 Mbit/s,’’ IEEE Transactions on Communications
COM-26, pp. 1020–1027 (July 1978).
29. Midwinter interview.
30. ‘‘Europe looks to fiber optics for telephone expansion,’’ Laser Focus 14, No.
2, pp. 68–76 (Feb. 1978).
31. Charles Sandbank, ed., Optical Fiber Communication Systems (Wiley, Chicester,
1980; see especially chap. 11 by D. H. Hill).
32. R. Bouillie, ‘‘Application of optical fibers to existing communication systems,’’
paper presented at the third European Conference on Optical Communications,
Sept. 14–16, 1977, Munich. (VDE-Verlag, Berlin, 1977) pp. 231–236.
33. ‘‘Europe looks to fiber optics.’’
34. Midwinter interview.
35. Dyott telephone interview.
36. Strictly speaking, it depends on the inverse fourth power of wavelength,
1/(wavelength) 4 .