Fiber Optics

Swiss engineer Daniel Colladon is credited as a founding father of modern fiber optics. The contribution that I was taught, involved using running water as a medium for light.

I believe it was even demonstrated as a parlor trick. People were seated, and the house lights were turned down. Colladon devised a water spout that could accept light as an additional input, coming from within the spring.

The stunning result, was that the bright light was completely contained in a graceful, continuous stream of running water.

Colladon had some game, alright. And a generous portion of scientific curiosity. Interestingly, the inspiration within modern fiber optic communications, rests even further back in human history.

From a technical standpoint, a lighthouse is an optical device. Built into solid rock by Yankee craftsmen, the gadget transmits an impulse (the light signal pattern) across a medium (air). Modern telecom pushes the envelope a bit further, with current lasers acheiving signaling levels of hundreds of billions per second.

Thats is over a billion bits, or impulses, per second. There! Now you are partway registered fiber tech. That, and about four bits, will still leave you about four cents shy of a Daily News!