"When I grow up," I want to enter the corporate business world. My major is Corporate Communications because I do believe that communications is the most important aspect of a successful business. When I think of an invention or discovery that changed the communication world, I think of fiber optics, which was introduced in the late 1970s. Because of fiber optics, businesses and industries, notably telecommunications and computer networks, are able to grow. The Information Age has been even more revolutionized, allowing digital infomration to be carried over LONG distances (i.e. overseas).

Fiber optics is the branch of optical technology that deals with the transmission of light or images across short or long distances, through transparent fibers.

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending light through an optical fiber, rather than an electrical transmission through a copper wire.

Image accredited to Accent Business Communication

Fiber optics (optical fibers) are long, thin strands of very pure glass about the diameter of a human hair. They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and used to transmit light signals over long distances.

Core - Thin glass center of the fiber where the light travels

Cladding - Outer optical material surrounding the core that reflects the light back into the core

Buffer coating - Plastic coating that protects the fiber from damage and moisture

Hundreds or thousands of these optical fibers are arranged in bundles in optical cables. The bundles are protected by the cable's outer covering, called a jacket.

Fiber optics have many advantages over your conventional copper wires.

Image accredited to University of Maine

In 1978, the total of all fiber-optic installations in the world came to only 600 miles. In 1980, AT&T filed plans with the Federal Communications Commission for a 611-mile system that would connect major cities in the Boston-Washington corridor. Four years later, when the system entered service, its cable, less than 1 inch across, provided 80,000 voice channels for simultaneous telephone conversations. By then, the total length of fiber cables in the United States alone approached 250,000 miles--enough to stretch to the moon.

The first transatlantic cable to use fiber optics, TAT-8, entered service in 1988, using glass so transparent that its amplifiers for regenerating weak signals could be spaced more than 40 miles apart. Three years later, another transatlantic cable doubled the capacity of the first one.

The events in the previous two paragraphs marks the start of the commercial use of fiber optics. Through the 1990s and 2000s, because of the dot-com bubble , the demand for the use of fiber optics boomed. The rise of Internet use gave way to a whole new world of communication.

So as I said earlier, fiber optics allow us to communicate all across the globe. This convergence of business, technology, and communications permits globalization. Globalization does not just integrate the economic and political aspects of business but the social and cultural components as well.

First off, this invention helps global communication and international business. My desire and "home" is to venture into the unfamiliar and the exciting.

I believe that my emphasis on the importance of communication has come about because of my family.

A chronology of fiber optics dating back as far as when the Romans drew glass into fibers is available for your viewing pleasure. This chronology can be seen in Jeff Hecht's City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (published by Oxford University Press).

To gain further knowledge on the technical and theoretical features of fiber optics, you can read a 638-page Redbook that IBM published called Understanding Optical Communications. Enjoy!

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