Fibre optics

Fibre optics – the science of trapping light and directing it from one point to another – is often associated with cutting-edge technology, when in fact its use dates back to the 1840s when French academics discovered that light trapped in a stream of water could travel around bends, writes Bede McCarthy.

However, it was perhaps not until the mid-1960s, when German physicist Manfred B?rner started sending data using light instead of electrons, that its fundamental importance to business emerged. Today, a single fibre scarcely thicker than a human hair can carry about 90,000 television channels. The technology is also immune to electrical interference and environmental noise, safe to use around explosive fumes and difficult to wiretap. Little wonder, then, that it is optical fibres that form the backbone of the internet, ferrying data along submarine cables that connect every continent except Antarctica.