The term "fiber-optics"

Fiber-optics are made of a bundle of thin glass or plastic strands. This bundle allows light to pass through without leaking out. Since the light is unable to escape, crystal clear images are passed through the fiber-optics from the point of origin to the destination, where they can be viewed by the user. Fiber-optics is used to create Internet data and images, images of internal organs, vocal sounds in telephones, and more than 80% of cable and satellite television images. Due to the clarity of the wiring in fiber-optics, images and sounds can travel at extremely high speeds without becoming distorted at any point.

In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated how light could be used to transfer sounds from one area to another. Though it did not work on cloudy days, his discovery did set the stage for fiber-optics. A few decades later, the first set of bundled fiber-optics cables was developed, though it was not called "fiber-optics" at the time.

In 1930, a German student named Heinrich Lamm demonstrated how fiber-optics could be used to examine internal body parts. Since the images were unclear, however, he did not receive a patent for his invention. In 1956, the term "fiber-optics" was born when Narinder Kapany coined the term after bundling a few glass rods. He then demonstrated that these rods could project light without leaking at any point, as long as they were wrapped or coated in a dark material.

December 8, 2011

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