User's Manual

Powerwave Fiber Optics
VM100 56/EN – User’s Manual Rev. P1A9-Draft 2004-11 2 - 1
2. Introduction
The first official demonstration of the fiber optics technology took place at the British
Royal Society in London, 1870. It was given by natural philosopher John Tyndall. He
used a container with a spout and water. As the water poured through the spout, the light
from the inside of the container followed the curved water path.
Figure 2-1. John Tyndall’s first guided light transmission
This demonstation was the first research into guided light transmission.
Ten years later, in 1880, William Wheeling patented a method to transfer light in tubes,
’piping light’ through plumbing. However, this never took off because Edison invented
the light bulb.
Alexander Graham Bell was, about the same time, the first ever to arrange an optical
amplitude modulated transmission over 200m. This was, however, achieved by emitting
light beams in free space. Graham Bell’s idea was not to use wire for telephone
communication.
In the decade around 1950, the first practical all-glass fibers was developed which gave
a success to the technology. It was Brian O’Brien at the American Optical Company and
Narinder Kapany at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London who
was first to practically use an image-transmitting fiber-scope. Narinder Kapany was the
man who coined the term ’fiber optics’ in 1956.
Since that time, the laser and then the semiconductor laser have been very important
inventions making the technology to grow increasingly and also become a fascinating
and mysterious industry, where much of the technology has been isolated from
outsiders.
This manual is an attempt to open the curtain for a small area of this technology – fiber
optic transmission between repeaters.