City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Reprint. Third printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xii, 316 pages. Illustrations. Fiber-Optic Chronology. Notes. Index. Signed by author. Signed on a bookplate. Jeff Hecht has been writing about lasers, optics and fiber optics for more than 35 years. After writing for industry magazine Laser Focus World for several years, he began writing books that explain laser science and technology to newcomers to the field. After years of writing about new science and technology, he turned to the history of fiber optics, writing City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, as part of the Sloan Technology Series. More recently, he wrote BEAM: The Race to Make The Laser, describing the work that led to the world's first laser in 1960. He continues to write extensively for magazines, covering topics from lasers to dinosaurs for New Scientist magazine, and continuing developments in lasers and photonics for Laser Focus World. This is one of the Sloan Technology series. This readable account is likely to become the definitive history of fiber optics. Starting from early Victorian times, when fiber optics was viewed simply as a parlor trick, Jeff Hecht gives us the full story, including the characters, discoveries, and fortuitous accidents that made the technology possible. Fiber optics is now the backbone of a multi-billion dollar global communications network which includes the internet, telecommunications, and cable TV, plus laser, military, and medical uses, and this fascinating survey covers the full range of its applications. The book concludes with a realistic took into future possibilities.