Telecommunications Essentials

Fiber Optics

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a number of people were working in the realm of fiber optics simultaneously. Charles Kao, who was a scientist with ITT, is often acknowledged as being one of the fathers of fiber optics. Kao theorized that if we could develop a procedure for manufacturing ultrapure, ultrathin filaments of glass, we could use this as a revolutionary new communications pipeline. Thus began the move toward researching and developing optical technology.

In 1970, we first had the developments that today allow us to deploy the large amounts of fiber we have. The first development was a procedure for manufacturing ultrapure filaments of glass, a procedure called “broomsticking,” that was introduced by Corning Glassworks. ...