Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

Chapter 603 Applications of Optical Fiber

"For research on optical fibers, you can look at the paper "Fiber Optic Surface Waveguides for Optical Frequency" published by Charles Kuen Kao and GA Hockham in 1966. In the field of communication, especially optical communication, this article is like a cornerstone. In this article, not only the possibility of using optical fiber as a transmission medium to realize optical communication is analyzed, it is considered that silica-based glass fiber can be used for long-distance transmission, and the waveguide structure of optical fiber for communication is designed."

"Professor Charles Kuen Kao believes that the way to manufacture ultra-low loss optical fibers for communication is to reduce the loss coefficient of optical fibers to below 20dB/km by strengthening the purification of raw materials and adding appropriate dopants. In 1970, Corning The three glass technicians successfully produced the world's first low-loss silica optical fiber through this theory."

"In 1974, based on the optical fiber products of Corning glass, Bell Labs developed a vapor deposition method for the production of low-loss optical fibers, which reduced the loss rate from 20dB/km of Corning glass to 1dB/km. In 1977, Bell Labs also successfully developed a semiconductor laser with a life span of 100 million hours. The two most important links in optical communication technology: lasers, which are signal sending and receiving equipment, and low-loss optical fibers, namely Stable transmission channels have been conquered. In the same year, the first optical fiber communication system entered experimental operation in Chicago, with a transmission rate of 45Mbit/s and 672 voice channels.

When Professor Freeman introduced these contents, he was very emotional and even a little excited.For this professor who is rooted in the research of communication networks, that optical fiber is what he has been looking forward to countless days and nights.
For Carter, there is an optical fiber with a transmission speed of 45Mbit these days, which is a bit beyond Carter's cognition.After all, thinking about the past, in the early days after the millennium, all the Internet access methods I could use were ridiculously slow dial-up Internet access.

Although Carter also knew that the optical fiber line put into use in Chicago in 77 can only be said to be a laboratory product, and there is still a long way to go to the market, but
The beating heart has already shown that Carter is not calm at this time.
"Is the cost too high?"

"Yes, optical fiber, you can understand it as a kind of extremely fine flexible glass tube. When the light signal enters it, it is like entering a pipe full of mirrors. Under the action of total reflection, the light signal can only pass through the pipe. The other end comes out and is captured by the laser. In this way, the transmission of information is completed."

"If you want to prepare such a thin glass pipe, you have to consider its laying construction, at least it cannot be easily damaged. The cost. The price of laying a kilometer of optical fiber pipe is no more than repairing a kilometer of high-speed Highway is lower."

"If you want to build such a huge information superhighway across the United States, do you think this is something you can do personally?"

"Of course not!"

Carter shook his head quickly
The construction cost is so expensive, not to mention myself, even ATT, a telecom monopoly giant with a large business, does not have the courage to throw money in this direction now.

And this seems to explain why the first optical fiber line in operation appeared in 1977, and the future did not officially flourish until nearly three decades later.
"Thank you, Professor, I think I know enough. Although, I may not have the strength to do such a great cause now, but I will work hard for it, and in the future, I will play my best in this cause contribution!"

"Haha, that's great! But since it is the case, it is necessary to shine in the field of communication. Money is important, but what about people, do you want to consider taking my courses? Come to me later to study for a master's degree"

Carter:? ? ?
"No, no, no, I."

"Don't you want to get in touch with this big guy anymore? And that vast world? Learn from me, your teacher is not just me, look behind it"

"MIT, Harvard, UC, Brown, and more."

When he came out of the School of Applied Engineering, Carter not only had some doubts about life: Who am I?where am I?what am i doing
As a result of looking for BIT net, apart from seeing a temporarily useless IBM mainframe, it seems that the only gain is that there is an extra cheap teacher and a few more courses.
Damn Yale, why didn't they start dividing majors until junior year
This means that at the stage of undergraduate basic education, students can freely choose courses across schools, which gave Professor Freeman an opportunity and also gave Carter.
trouble!

"Find the thing you said can change the world?"

"I found it, but that thing. Don't talk about changing the world now. It changed my life"

Throwing himself on the bed sadly, Carter complained full of resentment:

"I feel like I might be turning into an engineering dog."

"The old man didn't know why he was crazy, he insisted on pulling me to take their communication technology class."

"Hahaha, I laughed so hard! Maybe it's because you mobilized a group of people to find BIT, so that people can see your enthusiasm and the organizational skills that their science and engineering students lack most! Maybe you think that you can help him in the future Lead a project, or manage a graduate student team!"

"Oh, forget it, it's done. It's useless to complain now. If you have time later, come with me to Chicago?"

"Chicago? What are you doing there?"

"I heard that there is the world's first optical fiber communication line over there. Since I'm going to learn this course now, and I've paid so much, it's good to go and have a look. For example, their current operator, charges, and Efficiency, including customer groups and so on, understand and understand!"

When Carter said this, he suddenly thought of another thing: the construction of the information superhighway!
This seems to be the beginning of the 90s in the United States, almost no less than the national road network construction in the 20s and 30s, and the highway construction that started later, a large-scale national infrastructure.

This seems to be the last wave of national large-scale infrastructure construction in the history of the United States, as of 2022 before my time travel.

In addition to following up and understanding the development progress of the Internet, and looking for opportunities to start, this time large-scale infrastructure construction.For Carter, who owns a construction company that is definitely considered a large-scale construction worker or architect in the United States, it seems to be an important opportunity for development.
So, should we first find some information pipelines for some workers, such as optical fiber connection, laying and other small tasks, and let them practice first?
In other words, if the income of this optical fiber communication line is not bad, then we can do it on a small scale.While making a small profit, cultivate a group of skilled hands in the field of communication construction to win future large orders.
This seems like a good direction!

(End of this chapter)