Maglite (also spelled Mag-Lite , stylized as MAG-LITE ) is a brand of flashlight manufactured in the United States by Mag Instrument, Inc. located in Ontario, California , and founded by Anthony Maglica . It was introduced in 1979. Constructed principally of anodized 6061 aluminum , they have a variable-focus beam. Maglites are produced in several colors such as black, silver, blue, red, green, purple, gold, and different finishes. Originally Maglite flashlights used krypton or xenon incandescent bulbs. Current models have LEDs , although the older models are still widely available.
70-564: Accessories include belt holsters, mounting brackets, colored and glass lenses, attachable fiber optics extensions to bend light output into a cramped space, higher-powered incandescent bulbs, and LED conversion modules. The Maglite was an improvement over the Kel-Lite , after which the Maglite was patterned. A list of the sizes of Mag Instrument flashlights, and the years they were released: Maglite flashlights have been known to be used as
140-414: A core surrounded by a cladding layer, both of which are made of dielectric materials. To confine the optical signal in the core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than that of the cladding. The boundary between the core and cladding may either be abrupt, in step-index fiber , or gradual, in graded-index fiber . Light can be fed into optical fibers using lasers or LEDs . Fiber
210-411: A wavelength shifter collect scintillation light in physics experiments . Fiber-optic sights for handguns, rifles, and shotguns use pieces of optical fiber to improve the visibility of markings on the sight. An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide ( nonconducting waveguide) that transmits light along its axis through the process of total internal reflection. The fiber consists of
280-426: A 16,000-kilometer distance, means that there is a minimum delay of 80 milliseconds (about 1 12 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{12}}} of a second) between when one caller speaks and the other hears. When light traveling in an optically dense medium hits a boundary at a steep angle of incidence (larger than the critical angle for the boundary), the light is completely reflected. This
350-528: A Ph.D. degree in optics from the University of London , which he obtained in 1955. At Imperial College , Kapany worked with Harold Hopkins on transmission through fibers, achieving good image transmission through a large bundle of optical fibers for the first time in 1953. Optical fibers had been tried for image transmission before, but Hopkins and Kapany's technique allowed much better image quality than could previously be achieved. This, combined with
420-423: A cladding made of pure silica, with an index of 1.444 at 1500 nm, and a core of doped silica with an index around 1.4475. The larger the index of refraction, the slower light travels in that medium. From this information, a simple rule of thumb is that a signal using optical fiber for communication will travel at around 200,000 kilometers per second. Thus a phone call carried by fiber between Sydney and New York,
490-514: A defensive weapon, especially at night or in dark locations. On March 30, 2007, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that they would be switching to a smaller, lighter LED flashlight that cannot be used as a baton, in response to a highly publicized incident where an officer was accused of using excessive force against a suspect by using a Maglite. Optical fiber An optical fiber , or optical fibre ,
560-451: A digital audio optical connection. This allows the streaming of audio over light, using the S/PDIF protocol over an optical TOSLINK connection. Fibers have many uses in remote sensing . In some applications, the fiber itself is the sensor (the fibers channel optical light to a processing device that analyzes changes in the light's characteristics). In other cases, fiber is used to connect
630-522: A lasting impact on structures . It is based on the principle of measuring analog attenuation. In spectroscopy , optical fiber bundles transmit light from a spectrometer to a substance that cannot be placed inside the spectrometer itself, in order to analyze its composition. A spectrometer analyzes substances by bouncing light off and through them. By using fibers, a spectrometer can be used to study objects remotely. An optical fiber doped with certain rare-earth elements such as erbium can be used as
700-423: A network in an office building (see fiber to the office ), fiber-optic cabling can save space in cable ducts. This is because a single fiber can carry much more data than electrical cables such as standard category 5 cable , which typically runs at 100 Mbit/s or 1 Gbit/s speeds. Fibers are often also used for short-distance connections between devices. For example, most high-definition televisions offer
770-519: A ready substitute for a baton . In 2004, the Los Angeles Police Commission moved to use smaller flashlights, with Alan Skobin, the commission vice-president, stating that "This policy makes clear flashlights are for illumination and discourages their use as an impact tool. And it ensures officer safety as well as protects the public." Security and police personnel often carry Maglite flashlights in red as they can be employed as
SECTION 10
#1732794271050840-474: A sensor to a measurement system. Optical fibers can be used as sensors to measure strain , temperature , pressure , and other quantities by modifying a fiber so that the property being measured modulates the intensity , phase , polarization , wavelength , or transit time of light in the fiber. Sensors that vary the intensity of light are the simplest since only a simple source and detector are required. A particularly useful feature of such fiber optic sensors
910-649: A target without a clear line-of-sight path. Many microscopes use fiber-optic light sources to provide intense illumination of samples being studied. Optical fiber is also used in imaging optics. A coherent bundle of fibers is used, sometimes along with lenses, for a long, thin imaging device called an endoscope , which is used to view objects through a small hole. Medical endoscopes are used for minimally invasive exploratory or surgical procedures. Industrial endoscopes (see fiberscope or borescope ) are used for inspecting anything hard to reach, such as jet engine interiors. In some buildings, optical fibers route sunlight from
980-524: A transparent cladding. Later that same year, Harold Hopkins and Narinder Singh Kapany at Imperial College in London succeeded in making image-transmitting bundles with over 10,000 fibers, and subsequently achieved image transmission through a 75 cm long bundle which combined several thousand fibers. The first practical fiber optic semi-flexible gastroscope was patented by Basil Hirschowitz , C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss, researchers at
1050-468: Is a mechanical splice , where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors . The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics . The term was coined by Indian-American physicist Narinder Singh Kapany . Daniel Colladon and Jacques Babinet first demonstrated
1120-591: Is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications , where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data transfer rates) than electrical cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are immune to electromagnetic interference . Fibers are also used for illumination and imaging, and are often wrapped in bundles so they may be used to carry light into, or images out of confined spaces, as in
1190-453: Is a way of measuring the speed of light in a material. Light travels fastest in a vacuum , such as in outer space. The speed of light in vacuum is about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second. The refractive index of a medium is calculated by dividing the speed of light in vacuum by the speed of light in that medium. The refractive index of vacuum is therefore 1, by definition. A typical single-mode fiber used for telecommunications has
1260-411: Is bent towards the perpendicular ... When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular... If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the ray will not quit the water at all: it will be totally reflected at the surface... The angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of
1330-412: Is called multi-mode fiber , from the electromagnetic analysis (see below). In a step-index multi-mode fiber, rays of light are guided along the fiber core by total internal reflection. Rays that meet the core-cladding boundary at an angle (measured relative to a line normal to the boundary) greater than the critical angle for this boundary, are completely reflected. The critical angle is determined by
1400-418: Is called total internal reflection . This effect is used in optical fibers to confine light in the core. Most modern optical fiber is weakly guiding , meaning that the difference in refractive index between the core and the cladding is very small (typically less than 1%). Light travels through the fiber core, bouncing back and forth off the boundary between the core and cladding. Because the light must strike
1470-507: Is designed for use in the near infrared . Multi-mode fiber, by comparison, is manufactured with core diameters as small as 50 micrometers and as large as hundreds of micrometers. Some special-purpose optical fiber is constructed with a non-cylindrical core or cladding layer, usually with an elliptical or rectangular cross-section. These include polarization-maintaining fiber used in fiber optic sensors and fiber designed to suppress whispering gallery mode propagation. Photonic-crystal fiber
SECTION 20
#17327942710501540-507: Is far less than in electrical copper cables, leading to long-haul fiber connections with repeater distances of 70–150 kilometers (43–93 mi). Two teams, led by David N. Payne of the University of Southampton and Emmanuel Desurvire at Bell Labs , developed the erbium-doped fiber amplifier , which reduced the cost of long-distance fiber systems by reducing or eliminating optical-electrical-optical repeaters, in 1986 and 1987 respectively. The emerging field of photonic crystals led to
1610-564: Is immune to electrical interference as there is no cross-talk between signals in different cables and no pickup of environmental noise. Information traveling inside the optical fiber is even immune to electromagnetic pulses generated by nuclear devices. Fiber cables do not conduct electricity, which makes fiber useful for protecting communications equipment in high voltage environments such as power generation facilities or applications prone to lightning strikes. The electrical isolation also prevents problems with ground loops . Because there
1680-418: Is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the fiber cores, and the coupling of these aligned cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common. In this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique
1750-611: Is kept in the core by the phenomenon of total internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide . Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers , while those that support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF). Multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,050 meters (3,440 ft). Being able to join optical fibers with low loss
1820-405: Is made with a regular pattern of index variation (often in the form of cylindrical holes that run along the length of the fiber). Such fiber uses diffraction effects instead of or in addition to total internal reflection, to confine light to the fiber's core. The properties of the fiber can be tailored to a wide variety of applications. Attenuation in fiber optics, also known as transmission loss,
1890-412: Is monitored and analyzed for disturbances. This return signal is digitally processed to detect disturbances and trip an alarm if an intrusion has occurred. Optical fibers are widely used as components of optical chemical sensors and optical biosensors . Optical fiber can be used to transmit power using a photovoltaic cell to convert the light into electricity. While this method of power transmission
1960-439: Is no electricity in optical cables that could potentially generate sparks, they can be used in environments where explosive fumes are present. Wiretapping (in this case, fiber tapping ) is more difficult compared to electrical connections. Fiber cables are not targeted for metal theft . In contrast, copper cable systems use large amounts of copper and have been targeted since the 2000s commodities boom . The refractive index
2030-478: Is not as efficient as conventional ones, it is especially useful in situations where it is desirable not to have a metallic conductor as in the case of use near MRI machines, which produce strong magnetic fields. Other examples are for powering electronics in high-powered antenna elements and measurement devices used in high-voltage transmission equipment. Optical fibers are used as light guides in medical and other applications where bright light needs to be shone on
2100-418: Is that they can, if required, provide distributed sensing over distances of up to one meter. Distributed acoustic sensing is one example of this. In contrast, highly localized measurements can be provided by integrating miniaturized sensing elements with the tip of the fiber. These can be implemented by various micro- and nanofabrication technologies, such that they do not exceed the microscopic boundary of
2170-422: Is the numerical aperture (NA) of the fiber. Fiber with a larger NA requires less precision to splice and work with than fiber with a smaller NA. The size of this acceptance cone is a function of the refractive index difference between the fiber's core and cladding. Single-mode fiber has a small NA. Fiber with large core diameter (greater than 10 micrometers) may be analyzed by geometrical optics . Such fiber
Maglite - Misplaced Pages Continue
2240-474: Is the measurement of temperature inside jet engines by using a fiber to transmit radiation into a pyrometer outside the engine. Extrinsic sensors can be used in the same way to measure the internal temperature of electrical transformers , where the extreme electromagnetic fields present make other measurement techniques impossible. Extrinsic sensors measure vibration, rotation, displacement, velocity, acceleration, torque, and torsion. A solid-state version of
2310-428: Is the reduction in the intensity of the light signal as it travels through the transmission medium. Attenuation coefficients in fiber optics are usually expressed in units of dB/km. The medium is usually a fiber of silica glass that confines the incident light beam within. Attenuation is an important factor limiting the transmission of a digital signal across large distances. Thus, much research has gone into both limiting
2380-484: Is typical in deployed systems. Through the use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), each fiber can carry many independent channels, each using a different wavelength of light. The net data rate (data rate without overhead bytes) per fiber is the per-channel data rate reduced by the forward error correction (FEC) overhead, multiplied by the number of channels (usually up to 80 in commercial dense WDM systems as of 2008 ). For short-distance applications, such as
2450-402: Is used as a medium for telecommunication and computer networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because infrared light propagates through the fiber with much lower attenuation compared to electricity in electrical cables. This allows long distances to be spanned with few repeaters . 10 or 40 Gbit/s
2520-471: The University of Michigan , in 1956. In the process of developing the gastroscope, Curtiss produced the first glass-clad fibers; previous optical fibers had relied on air or impractical oils and waxes as the low-index cladding material. Kapany coined the term fiber optics after writing a 1960 article in Scientific American that introduced the topic to a wide audience. He subsequently wrote
2590-405: The gain medium of a fiber laser or optical amplifier . Rare-earth-doped optical fibers can be used to provide signal amplification by splicing a short section of doped fiber into a regular (undoped) optical fiber line. The doped fiber is optically pumped with a second laser wavelength that is coupled into the line in addition to the signal wave. Both wavelengths of light are transmitted through
2660-713: The Excellence 2000 Award from the USA Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce in 1998. In November 1999, he was identified by Fortune as one of the seven "unsung heroes who greatly influenced life in the twentieth century" in the "Businessmen of the Century" issue. Dr. Kapany was also on Time Magazine's list of top ten scientists of the 20th century in Time's last issue of 1999. Kapany married Satinder Kaur in 1954, in London. She died in 2016 after
2730-846: The Exploratorium of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1972 and at museums and art galleries in Chicago, Monterey, Palo Alto, and Stanford. Kapany was posthumously included in the list of Padma Vibhushan awardees for 2021. The award is India's second highest civilian honor. He received the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Fiat Lux Award in 2008. He was also the recipient of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2004. He received
2800-597: The Foundation runs programs in publishing, academia and the arts. In 1998, Kapany endowed a Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara . His gift in 1999 of $ 500,000 to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco established a gallery in its new building displaying the works he donated from his collection of Sikh art. In 1999, he endowed a Chair of Optoelectronics at the University of California, Santa Cruz . Again in 2012, he established
2870-966: The Narinder Kapany Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at UC Santa Cruz. He was a trustee of the University of California, Santa Cruz Foundation. He also served as a trustee of the Menlo School in Menlo Park, California . As an art collector, Kapany specialised in Sikh art. He provided paintings and other objects on loan for the "Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms" exhibition, which was held at London's Victoria & Albert Museum beginning in March 1999. From there,
Maglite - Misplaced Pages Continue
2940-595: The almost-simultaneous development of optical cladding by Dutch scientist Bram van Heel, helped jump start the new field of fiber optics . Kapany coined the term 'fiber optics' in an article in Scientific American in 1960, wrote the first book about the new field, and was the new field's most prominent researcher, writer, and spokesperson. Kapany's research and work encompassed fiber-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring. He had over 120 patents, and
3010-472: The attenuation and maximizing the amplification of the optical signal. The four orders of magnitude reduction in the attenuation of silica optical fibers over four decades was the result of constant improvement of manufacturing processes, raw material purity, preform, and fiber designs, which allowed for these fibers to approach the theoretical lower limit of attenuation. Narinder Singh Kapany Narinder Singh Kapany (31 October 1926 – 4 December 2020)
3080-564: The attenuation in fibers available at the time was caused by impurities that could be removed, rather than by fundamental physical effects such as scattering. They correctly and systematically theorized the light-loss properties for optical fiber and pointed out the right material to use for such fibers— silica glass with high purity. This discovery earned Kao the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. The crucial attenuation limit of 20 dB/km
3150-724: The boards of various companies. He was a member of the Young Presidents Organization and later a member of the World Presidents Organization. As an academic, Kapany taught and supervised research activity of postgraduate students. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and at the University of California, Santa Cruz . He founded the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) at UCSC and served as director for seven years. At Stanford University , he
3220-416: The boundary with an angle greater than the critical angle, only light that enters the fiber within a certain range of angles can travel down the fiber without leaking out. This range of angles is called the acceptance cone of the fiber. There is a maximum angle from the fiber axis at which light may enter the fiber so that it will propagate, or travel, in the core of the fiber. The sine of this maximum angle
3290-457: The cameras had to be supervised by someone with an appropriate security clearance. Charles K. Kao and George A. Hockham of the British company Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) were the first to promote the idea that the attenuation in optical fibers could be reduced below 20 decibels per kilometer (dB/km), making fibers a practical communication medium, in 1965. They proposed that
3360-416: The case of a fiberscope . Specially designed fibers are also used for a variety of other applications, such as fiber optic sensors and fiber lasers . Glass optical fibers are typically made by drawing , while plastic fibers can be made either by drawing or by extrusion . Optical fibers typically include a core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with a lower index of refraction . Light
3430-407: The core-cladding boundary. The resulting curved paths reduce multi-path dispersion because high-angle rays pass more through the lower-index periphery of the core, rather than the high-index center. The index profile is chosen to minimize the difference in axial propagation speeds of the various rays in the fiber. This ideal index profile is very close to a parabolic relationship between the index and
3500-442: The development in 1991 of photonic-crystal fiber , which guides light by diffraction from a periodic structure, rather than by total internal reflection. The first photonic crystal fibers became commercially available in 2000. Photonic crystal fibers can carry higher power than conventional fibers and their wavelength-dependent properties can be manipulated to improve performance. These fibers can have hollow cores. Optical fiber
3570-467: The difference in the index of refraction between the core and cladding materials. Rays that meet the boundary at a low angle are refracted from the core into the cladding where they terminate. The critical angle determines the acceptance angle of the fiber, often reported as a numerical aperture . A high numerical aperture allows light to propagate down the fiber in rays both close to the axis and at various angles, allowing efficient coupling of light into
SECTION 50
#17327942710503640-445: The distance from the axis. Fiber with a core diameter less than about ten times the wavelength of the propagating light cannot be modeled using geometric optics. Instead, it must be analyzed as an electromagnetic waveguide structure, according to Maxwell's equations as reduced to the electromagnetic wave equation . As an optical waveguide, the fiber supports one or more confined transverse modes by which light can propagate along
3710-621: The doped fiber, which transfers energy from the second pump wavelength to the signal wave. The process that causes the amplification is stimulated emission . Optical fiber is also widely exploited as a nonlinear medium. The glass medium supports a host of nonlinear optical interactions, and the long interaction lengths possible in fiber facilitate a variety of phenomena, which are harnessed for applications and fundamental investigation. Conversely, fiber nonlinearity can have deleterious effects on optical signals, and measures are often required to minimize such unwanted effects. Optical fibers doped with
3780-760: The exhibition proceeded to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (with the Sikh Foundation as a sponsor) and opened in May 2000 at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The exhibition follows "Splendors of the Punjab: Sikh Art and Literature in 1992" organised by Kapany in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum and UC Berkeley to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sikh Foundation. As an artist, Kapany's 'dynoptic' sculptures were displayed at
3850-424: The fiber tip, allowing for such applications as insertion into blood vessels via hypodermic needle. Extrinsic fiber optic sensors use an optical fiber cable , normally a multi-mode one, to transmit modulated light from either a non-fiber optical sensor—or an electronic sensor connected to an optical transmitter. A major benefit of extrinsic sensors is their ability to reach otherwise inaccessible places. An example
3920-404: The fiber. Fiber supporting only one mode is called single-mode . The waveguide analysis shows that the light energy in the fiber is not completely confined in the core. Instead, especially in single-mode fibers, a significant fraction of the energy in the bound mode travels in the cladding as an evanescent wave . The most common type of single-mode fiber has a core diameter of 8–10 micrometers and
3990-438: The fiber. However, this high numerical aperture increases the amount of dispersion as rays at different angles have different path lengths and therefore take different amounts of time to traverse the fiber. In graded-index fiber, the index of refraction in the core decreases continuously between the axis and the cladding. This causes light rays to bend smoothly as they approach the cladding, rather than reflecting abruptly from
4060-493: The first book about the new field. The first working fiber-optic data transmission system was demonstrated by German physicist Manfred Börner at Telefunken Research Labs in Ulm in 1965, followed by the first patent application for this technology in 1966. In 1968, NASA used fiber optics in the television cameras that were sent to the moon. At the time, the use in the cameras was classified confidential , and employees handling
4130-510: The guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, in Paris in the early 1840s. John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London , 12 years later. Tyndall also wrote about the property of total internal reflection in an introductory book about the nature of light in 1870: When the light passes from air into water, the refracted ray
4200-469: The gyroscope, using the interference of light, has been developed. The fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) has no moving parts and exploits the Sagnac effect to detect mechanical rotation. Common uses for fiber optic sensors include advanced intrusion detection security systems . The light is transmitted along a fiber optic sensor cable placed on a fence, pipeline, or communication cabling, and the returned signal
4270-413: The medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, while for a diamond it is 23°42′. In the late 19th century, a team of Viennese doctors guided light through bent glass rods to illuminate body cavities. Practical applications such as close internal illumination during dentistry followed, early in the twentieth century. Image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by
SECTION 60
#17327942710504340-416: The radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. In the 1930s, Heinrich Lamm showed that one could transmit images through a bundle of unclad optical fibers and used it for internal medical examinations, but his work was largely forgotten. In 1953, Dutch scientist Bram van Heel first demonstrated image transmission through bundles of optical fibers with
4410-431: The roof to other parts of the building (see nonimaging optics ). Optical-fiber lamps are used for illumination in decorative applications, including signs , art , toys and artificial Christmas trees . Optical fiber is an intrinsic part of the light-transmitting concrete building product LiTraCon . Optical fiber can also be used in structural health monitoring . This type of sensor can detect stresses that may have
4480-568: The speed of manufacture to over 50 meters per second, making optical fiber cables cheaper than traditional copper ones. These innovations ushered in the era of optical fiber telecommunication. The Italian research center CSELT worked with Corning to develop practical optical fiber cables, resulting in the first metropolitan fiber optic cable being deployed in Turin in 1977. CSELT also developed an early technique for splicing optical fibers, called Springroove. Attenuation in modern optical cables
4550-798: Was a member of the National Inventors Council . He was an International Fellow of numerous scientific societies including the Royal Academy of Engineering , the Optical Society of America , and the American Association for the Advancement of Science . As an entrepreneur and business executive, Kapany specialized in the processes of innovation and the management of technology and technology transfer. In 1960, he founded Optics Technology Inc. and
4620-623: Was a visiting scholar in the Physics Department and consulting professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. As an author and lecturer, Kapany published over 100 scientific papers and four books on opto-electronics and entrepreneurship . As a philanthropist , Kapany was active in education and the arts. He was the founding chairman of the Sikh Foundation and a major funder of its activities for over 50 years. In collaboration with international institutions and publishers,
4690-736: Was also offered the post of Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister of India, by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru . He is considered the father of Fiber Optics. Kapany was born on 31 October 1926, in Moga, Punjab to Sundar Singh and Kundan Kaur. He was from a Sikh Khatri family of Sodhi Clan and were landlords . He completed his schooling in Dehradun and went on to graduate from Agra University . He served as an Indian Ordnance Factories Service officer, before going to Imperial College London in 1952 to work on
4760-535: Was an Indian-American physicist best known for his work on fiber optics . Kapany is a pioneer in the field of fiber optics , known for coining and popularising the term. Fortune named him one of seven "Unsung Heroes of the 20th Century" for his Nobel Prize -deserving invention. He was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan , posthumously in 2021. He served as an Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS) officer. He
4830-667: Was chairman of the board, president, and director of research for twelve years. In 1967 the company went public with numerous corporate acquisitions and joint-ventures in the United States and abroad. In 1973, Kapany founded Kaptron Inc. and was president and CEO until 1990 when he sold the company to AMP Incorporated . For the next nine years, Kapany was an AMP Fellow, heading the Entrepreneur & Technical Expert Program and serving as chief technologist for global communications business. He founded K2 Optronics. He also served on
4900-675: Was first achieved in 1970 by researchers Robert D. Maurer , Donald Keck , Peter C. Schultz , and Frank Zimar working for American glass maker Corning Glass Works . They demonstrated a fiber with 17 dB/km attenuation by doping silica glass with titanium . A few years later they produced a fiber with only 4 dB/km attenuation using germanium dioxide as the core dopant. In 1981, General Electric produced fused quartz ingots that could be drawn into strands 25 miles (40 km) long. Initially, high-quality optical fibers could only be manufactured at 2 meters per second. Chemical engineer Thomas Mensah joined Corning in 1983 and increased
#49950