City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

320 NOTES TO PAGES 213–220
54. David Zielenziger, ‘‘Trans-Atlantic link goes on call,’’ Electronic Engineering
Times, Dec. 26, 1988, p. 16.
55. Notes in author’s files Apr. 6, 1989.
56. Charles J. Koester and Elias Snitzer, ‘‘Amplification in a fiber laser,’’ Applied
Optics 3, No. 10, pp. 1182–1186 (Oct. 1964).
57. Charles P. Sandbank, ed., Optical Fiber Communication Systems (Wiley,
Chichester, 1980, p. 19).
58. John W. Hicks, Jr., US Patent 4,616,898, ‘‘Optical communications using
Raman repeaters and components therefor,’’ filed Sept. 28, 1983, issued Oct. 14,
1986.
59. R. J. Mears et al., ‘‘Low-noise erbium-doped fiber amplifier operating at
1.54 µm,’’ Electronics Letters 23, p. 1026 (1987); also interview with David
Hanna, May 22, 1995. Emmanuel Desurvire and others also did important work
on erbium-doped fiber amplifiers as covered in the Epilogue. The doped fibers are
excited by diode lasers emitting at 980 or 1480 nanometers.
60. W. Christopher Barnett, ‘‘The TPC-5 cable network,’’ IEEE Communications
Magazine 34, pp. 36–40 (Feb. 1996).
61. Runge interview.
62. Ibid.
Chapter 16
1. Isaac Asimov, science column, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug.
1962.
2. David E. Fisher and Marshall Jon Fisher, Tube: The Invention of Television
(Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., 1996, p. 339).
3. William H. Dutton, Jay G. Blumler, and Kenneth L. Kraemer, eds., Wired
Cities: Shaping the Future of Communications (G. K. Hall and Co., Boston, 1987),
summarizes the history of the program.
4. William H. Dutton, telephone interview, Feb. 13, 1997.
5. Lee B. Becker, ‘‘A decade of research on interactive cable,’’ Dutton et al.,
(pp. 102–123).
6. John Fulenwider, telephone interview, Feb. 7, 1997.
7. Standard cable television sends all video signals to every subscriber but
scrambles premium channels so that they require decoding by a special set-top
box.
8. John Fulenwider, ‘‘Study of an all-optical communications system for trunking,
switching, and distribution of wideband signals,’’ paper presented at 21st
International Wire and Cable Symposium Atlantic City, Dec. 1972 (pp. 35–46).
9. Fulenwider interview.
10. Carol Davidge, ‘‘America’s talk-back television experiment, QUBE,’’ in Dutton
et al. Wired Cities.
11. A Summary Version of the Comprehensive Report on Hi-OVIS Project July ’78–
Mar ’86 (New Media Development Association, Tokyo, 1988).
12. The fibers had a 150-micrometer core clad with plastic, a type called
plastic-clad silica. At the time the system was designed in 1976, they were inexpensive
and attractive for short communication systems, but they suffered much
larger pulse spreading than graded-index fibers. (This sort of pulse spreading was
why graded-index fibers were invented.) A Summary Version.
13. Hi-OVIS Project: Interim Report, Hardware/Software Experiments: July ’78–