Look Who it Was Random video

AT&T Archives: Lightwave

4,252 views · Published 11 May 2011 · 10:27 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: AT&T Tech Channel · 2011 · Science & Technology

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Lightwave opens with a dramatization of Alexander Graham Bell's photophone test, which transmitted his voice via reflected sunlight beams - all the way back in 1880. The film then explores the technological developments over the years which led to lightwave communications trials in the 1970s. The film ends with a look into the future at the possible telecommunications benefits of this then-emerging technology.

The Photophone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and his then-assistant Charles Sumner Tainter in 1880. The photophone sent a conversation between two points 700 ft. apart, and the device transmitted both sounds and speech. It was, essentially, the very first wireless call.

Bell was so taken with this invention that he referred to it as his "greatest achievement" - so much so that he wanted to name his second daughter Photophone. His wife, Mabel, objected, so the daughter became Marian "Daisy" Bell (later to be paid tribute by the first piece of computer music developed at Bell Labs, a version of the song "Daisy Bell").

By 1977, fiber optic communication was still pre-natal - AT&T's first fiber-optic route was placed from Cambridge, MA, to Washington DC, and was placed in service around 1983-84.

In 2011, modern wireless light systems are actually still in the experimental/growth stage. While fiber-optic technology is extremely prevalent, those still include wires. However, in Dec. 2010 the municipal offices in St. Cloud, MN were the first to incorporate a new LED data technology which transmits the internet through the same light fixtures that light their offices, wirelessly.

Produced by Concepts Unlimited

Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

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