City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

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Other developers tried less serious uses like decorative lamps, where a bundle
of plastic fibers splays out sparkling light at their tips. Will Hicks threaded
plastic fibers through a plastic Christmas tree, trying to sell them as decorations
at a trade show in New York. When a potential customer visiting his
hotel room asked if the fiber was fireproof, Hicks lit a match to see—and
ignited both the tree and the fibers, getting himself tossed out of the hotel.
Nobody gave much thought to communicating through optical fibers, although
the invention of the laser in 1960 brought optical communications
into the spotlight. It was intuitively obvious to any physicist worth his salt
that no solid material could be as clear as air, and communications should
go through the clearest material possible. Hicks made some rough calculations,
but the results were discouraging; other frontiers seemed much more
promising. He didn’t realize until later that he had made a big mistake. 68