City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The Sunday evening phone call sounded completely ordinary..." (more)
Key Phrases: fiber developer, hollow optical waveguides, image scramblers, Bell Labs, Post Office, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Computers you notice. They sit on your desk and hum, ever smaller, ever faster, and always obsolete if bought longer ago than last week. But the equally impressive technology that turns millions of terminals into a global network is less obvious. The phone line that comes into your house probably still pushes electrons through metal. But not far away, the signal will join millions of others relayed down fiber optic cables by laser. Jeff Hecht's fascinating account of this undersung technology goes back 150 years to find the origins of fiber optics. Then he chronicles the many ingenious and determined engineers who fashioned it into a technology that festoons the globe with cables carrying pulses of photons. It was harder than pioneering copper links because supplanting an existing technology needs more persuasion than establishing the first one. And there was competition from the satellite industry, as well as unexpected setbacks, such as sharks who ignored copper but chewed fiber optic cables. Hecht tells a good tale, combining a light journalistic touch with a scholarly knowledge of the industry he has covered for over two decades. The story is not over yet, but this is a rich account of how we got this far in a technology that really has fueled a revolution. --Jon Turney, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

The first underwater telegraph cable was laid between England and the Continent in 1850, with the cable from America to Europe following in 1858. But for the next century, improvements in transcontinental communication came slowly. By the 1940s, Americans could talk to Europeans via a static-plagued radiophone. By the early 1980s, satellite transmissions had improved conversation clarity significantly, but callers were still annoyed by delay and feedback. Those who have made a transcontinental call recently, however, know that the wonders of fiber optics have made it possible to hear a pin drop on the Champs-Elysees. In this deft history, Hecht, a writer for the British weekly New Scientist, shows how the illuminated fountains that thrilled crowds at the great 19th-century exhibitions convinced scientists that light can be guided along narrow tubes. In our century, scientists used these tubes of light first to look inside the human body and then, as the physics of wave transmission were better understood, to transmit audio and optical information. Hecht explains which technological advances have made fiber optics the backbone of our telephone system in the last 10-15 years and how everyday applications should increase exponentially once fibers are connected directly to our homes. Already optical fibers are used in many surprising ways: guiding laser light in life-saving surgery; embedded in concrete to monitor stress in bridges; wound into gyroscopes to improve airline safety. Hecht's latter chapters are bogged down slightly with details that will mainly interest readers working in related areas, but general science buffs should enjoy his account of the development of the technology that will change our lives in many unexpected ways in the next quarter century.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (April 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195108183
• ISBN-13: 978-0195108187
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,179 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #10 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Electrical & Electronics > Optics > Fiber Optics
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is thorough, well written and entertaining!, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

Hecht makes fiber optics understandable to even the most non-technical of us. The constant stream of anecdotes keeps you turning the pages. The stories from the laboratories are great. You really get the feel for the personalities of the competing scientists. I would reccomend this book to anyone intersted in the field or interested in technology in general and how an invention is born from a parlor trick and becomes a telecommunications necessity.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good explanation of "where it all came from", August 29, 2000

By A Customer

Hecht does a good job of explaining where the technology of fiber optics communications came from. His book is not an explanation of how fiber optics communications works, but a history. I have a reasonably good background in fiber optics communications so it's difficult for me to judge whether someone who knew nothing about it would find it easy to follow, although I think they would.

I would particularly recommend the book to fiber optic techies - it really makes the technology more meaningful when you understand how the technology developed. A fine job by a good writer - very close to five stars.

And if you're technically oriented and want more knowledge of fiber optic technology, I'd recommend "Optical Networks" by Ramaswami and Sivarajan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive History of Fiber Optics, May 30, 2001

By	Bill B "CableGuy" (Long Island, New York USA) - See all my reviews

Fiber optics, the backbone of local and international communications and of the Internet, seems like a new technology, but in this comprehensive history of the field Jeff Hecht describes the Victorian origins of light guiding via jets of water.  In the first half of the 20th century a number of researchers independently discovered flexible glass fibers, and with the introduction of the laser in the 1950s long-distance optical communication became a possibility.  The main section of the book focuses on the work of researchers in Britain, Japan, and the United States from the 1950s through the 1980s as they overcome many technical problems and develop the beginnings of modern fiber optic cables, documenting the failures, the dead-ends, and the ultimate success in the early 1980s.  Extensively researched and annotated, with much material from primary sources, City of Light is accessible to the non-technical reader, yet has enough detail and links to additional sources to satisfy students of engineering history.