IN THIS SECTION The Early Years The Optical Fibre Group at
Southampton, 1966-1988 The advances made in this period have
been remarkable because when, in 1966, serious research on
optical fibres for long-distance transmission began in the
Electronics Department at Southampton there was no hint of all
the excitement to come. Work on optical communications had, in
effect, begun in 1961 when we received the first grant for work
on lasers. A former Diploma student of the Department, R.O.R.
(Bob) Chisholm, paid a visit to see the various research
projects in Electronics, most of which were under my
supervision. On leaving, and to my pleasant surprise, he handed
over a cheque for £1250, a very useful sum in those days, and
indicated that there would be two further contributions in
subsequent years. With this money a laser research programme was
started and R.C. (Bob) Smith appointed as research fellow. The
objective was to develop lasers suitable for use as carrier
sources in optical communications. Bob proceeded to