Corning celebrates 50 “When we invented the first low-loss optical fiber 50 years ago. We revolutionized the communications industry,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning’s chief executive officer. “At the time, few could have imagined the impact that invention would have on our world today, but that’s what we do at Corning – we create innovations that transform industries, improve people’s lives, and open up significant new opportunities.”
Over the last 50 years, fiber optics have made the development of new technologies in the areas of data transmission. Video streaming and cloud computing possible. Today, more than ever, people want to be connected, whether with their family, global customers or with their followers on social networks. Fiber optics enables us to connect to the Internet, make video calls and use messenger services – all while on the move. To mark the anniversary of this technology, Corning looks back at how the idea of low-loss signal transmission via fiber optics became a reality.
Corning scientists Robert Maurer
Donald Keck, and Peter Schultz were tasked more than 50 years ago with developing a high-purity optical glass that could effectively transmit light signals over long distances—a challenge that had Iceland Phone Number List not been met until then. As early as the mid-1960s, it was becoming clear to the company’s researchers, and the telecommunications industry as a whole, that the existing copper infrastructure for transmitting data and voice would not have enough bandwidth to meet future demands. During this time, members of the British Post Office approached Corning for help in producing pure optical fiber. Their design called for a single-mode fiber with an overall attenuation—or signal loss—of about 20 decibels per kilometer (dB/km). The best optical glasses of the time had a signal loss of about 1,000 dB/km. So the scientists needed to achieve an increase in transparency of 10 98 to realize the 20 dB/km goal. The task seemed impossible. But the successful breakthrough changed the world forever.
“Corning Optical Communications is proud to continue this legacy
Says Michael Bell, Senior Vice President and General Manager Cell Phone Number Database of Corning Optical Communications. “I knew this fiber was the key to the solution,” Dr. Keck recalls of the breakthrough. “We recorded the results of the measurement with a very short piece of fiber. We thought we had obtained a very good result. I wrote in my notes: 17 dB/km. We achieved our goal.”
Since that day, August 7, 1970, Corning has shipped over a Bulk Database billion kilometers of fiber optics and operates several fiber. Optic factories around the world. This success evolved into what is now Corning’s largest business segment – Optical Communications, which enables applications such as fiber-to-the-home. Transmission technologies for buildings and large and private data centers. 5G , the cloud, and almost every connection people make with their electronic devices today has its origins here.
Doctors Maurer, Keck and Schultz could not have imagined what their discovery would enable 50 years later. Likewise, today’s research team developing Corning’s fiber. Cable and connector technology probably cannot imagine what their discoveries will enable in the next 50 years.
