A Fiber-Optic Chronology(1)

This chronology is an early version of the one that appears in my book City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, published by Oxford University Press as part of the Sloan Technology Series. It is available from your local bookseller, Oxford, or Amazon.com. Your questions and comments are welcome via e-mail. I have also posted a short narrative history

Circa 2500 B.C.: Earliest known glass

Roman Times: Glass is drawn into fibers

1713: Rene de Reaumur makes spun glass fibers

1790s: Claude Chappe invents 'optical telegraph' in France

1841: Daniel Colladon demonstrates light guiding in jet of water Geneva

1842: Jacques Babinet reports light guiding in water jets and bent glass rods Paris

1853: Paris Opera uses Colladon's water jet in the opera Faust

1854: John Tyndall demonstrates light guiding in water jets, duplicating but not acknowledging Colladon

1873: Jules de Brunfaut makes glass fibers that can be woven into cloth

1880: Alexander Graham Bell invents Photophone, Washington

1880: William Wheeler invents system of light pipes to illuminate homes from an electric arc lamp in basement, Concord, Mass.

1884: International Health Exhibition in South Kensington district of London has first fountains with illuminated water jets, designed by Sir Francis Bolton

1887: Charles Vernon Boys draws quartz fibers for mechanical measurements

1887: Royal Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester has illuminated "Fairy Fountains" designed by W. and J. Galloway and Sons

1888: Illuminated fountains at Glasgow and Barcelona fairs

1888: Dr. Roth and Prof. Reuss of Vienna use bent glass rods to illuminate body cavities

1889: Universal Exhibition in Paris shows refined illuminated fountains designed by G. Bechmann

August 18, 2011

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