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Historical Introduction

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Book cover Fibre Optics

Part of the book series: Optical Physics and Engineering ((OPEG))

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Abstract

The field of fibre optics concerns itself with the guidance of light by multiple reflections along channels formed from glass or plastic. The reflection process which is invariably employed is that of total internal reflection at a dielectric interface, and the first recorded observation of this principle was by John Tyndall1 in 1854, who, in a lecture to the Royal Institution in London, “... permitted water to spout from a tube, the light on reaching the limiting surface of air and water was totally reflected and seemed to be washed downwards by the descending liquid ...”. In this case, the dielectric interface was formed between water and air, the air being the material of lower refractive index.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Defence, Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, UK

    W. B. Allan

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  1. W. B. Allan
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© 1973 Plenum Publishing Company Ltd

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Allan, W.B. (1973). Historical Introduction. In: Fibre Optics. Optical Physics and Engineering. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2040-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2040-1_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-2042-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-2040-1

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