Communication · 1970

Low-loss optical fiber

Corning pulls glass so pure that light carries data for kilometres.

Charles Kao proposed in 1966 that purified glass could carry light signals, and in 1970 Corning's Maurer, Keck and Schultz made fiber losing under 20 dB per km. Fiber now carries over 95 percent of intercontinental data, with single cables moving hundreds of terabits per second.

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