A Brief Introduction to Copper and Fiber Optic Cables - Part 1

                                                       

Alexander Graham Bell a Scottish-born Inventor, Engineer and Scientist is credited with being the inventor of the Telephone.

On 7th March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was awarded his patent for a harmonic telephone apparatus designed for“transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically". This invention kicked off the telecommunications revolution, which completely transformed societies across the world, and without which it would not be an understatement to say, the lives we live today would just not be possible.

In Bell's first telephone, sound waves caused an electric current to vary in intensity and frequency, causing a thin, soft iron plate, called the diaphragm to vibrate. These vibrations were transferred magnetically along a cable connected to a diaphragm, and on to another instrument at a distant location. When the diaphragm vibrated, the original sound in the transmitting instrument would be replicated in the ear of the receiving instrument. And it was just 3 days after Bell filed his patent, the telephone carried its first intelligible message, when he called his assistant Thomas Watson and said “Mr Watson, come here, I need you".

And so, the foundation of modern fixed line telecommunications systems, in the most-simple terms consist of a transmitting and receiving apparatus - a Telephone - And a means of transmitting communications - a Telephone Cable.

Of course, modern telecommunications today are far more sophisticated and encompass the provision of a vast range of Voice, Visual and Data Transmission Services, and of Course not all communications are Fixed Line, but include, in the 21st Century, Cellular, Wi-Fi, and Satellite transmissions.

It is Fixed Line telecommunications however, carried over Copper and Fiber Optic Cables which provide the lowest cost, most reliable, widest and strongest signals on which modern communications systems are built.

An introduction to Telecommunications and Data Networks should therefore begin with a look at the medium for transmitting and receiving voice and data - Copper and Fiber Optic Cables