During the nineteen nineties I invested in a couple of fiber optic technology company’s where I found out the amazing story of Alexander Graham Bell and his optical phone. Yes, you read that correctly, a light phone. It seems that Bell recognized the efficient way light could be used to transmit voice signals and preferred it to electricity. In 1873, (some dispute surrounding date but several of the scientists I worked with swore by this date) Bell mechanically attached a microphone to one mirror and a speaker to a second mirror that contained a photodiode. Using the mirrors for alignment purposes and using the sun as a light source, he created a free space optical link. When he spoke into the microphone it literately vibrated the first mirror which in turn vibrated the beam of light from the sun and was detected at the second mirror over a quarter of a mile away transmitting his voice over a light wave. He had invented the “photo phone.” It was not very useful at the time because he lacked a stable light source, the lasers we use today, and he lacked a wave guide or the fiber optic cable also in use today. I think it is remarkable that Bell performed this experiment prior to inventing the telephone.
Weirdness note: I posted this story today simply because I have not posted anything for a few days and this is an easy story for me but as it turns out, August 2 is the anniversary of Bell’s death in 1922. I did not know this until looking up Bell in Wikipedia for a link.
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