Scientists are busy working to devise better and faster transmission technologies as the demand for more efficient communication methods is increasing every day. With the advent of computer technologies and arrival of more sophisticated media gadgets the need to transmit data over vast distances in smaller periods of time is increasing. Data transmission is one of the most important inventions of the scientists. We have been transferring data to communicate with each other. Both wired and wireless technologies have become the subjects of scientists who are constantly working to improvise them. Various communications modes are now available. Electromagnetic waves are being widely used in cellular communication and satellite communication but fiber optics communication has definitely won the race. Fiber Optics has revolutionized the data transmission. It has provided larger bandwidths as well as speedier transmission over long distances. The innovative idea of using the glass fiber to carry light signals has won Mr. Charles k. Kao a Noble prize. Scientists knew for years that light signals can carry information while traveling though a glass. But difficulties arose in initial experiments as the glass absorbed most of the light signal making it too weak to deliver any information. Charles K. Kao discovered the cause of this absorption and found it that impurities in the glass absorbs the light signal. Charles K. Kao presented the denied the claims that’s glass’ structure causes the weakness in the light signal and theorized that it is the impurities in the fiber which absorbs the light signal making it considerable weak. He proposed that a more refined glass fiber can help to solve the problem. His theory was practically used in the making of a thin glass fiber at Coring Glass Works in New York in 1971 and technicians successfully made a fiber which could carry light for longer distances without weakening it considerably. This work laid the foundation of fiber optic communication which is being used today to carry data throughout the world. Charles K. Kao’s discovery has brought a whole new aspect in the way we communicate. Charles K. Kao’s work has been honored with Noble Prize. He shares a common Noble Prize with two other American scientists namely Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith.
Charles Kao Willard Boyle
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