Editing History of the Internet (section)

===Optical networking===
The [[MOS transistor]] underpinned the rapid growth of telecommunication bandwidth over the second half of the 20th century.<ref name="Jindal">{{cite book |last1=Jindal |first1=R. P. |title=2009 2nd International Workshop on Electron Devices and Semiconductor Technology |chapter=From millibits to terabits per second and beyond – over 60 years of innovation |date=2009 |chapter-url=https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/195547 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1109/EDST.2009.5166093 |isbn=978-1-4244-3831-0 |s2cid=25112828}}</ref> To address the need for transmission capacity beyond that provided by [[radio]], [[satellite]] and analog copper telephone lines, engineers developed [[optical communication]]s systems based on [[Fiber-optic cable|fiber optic cables]] powered by [[laser]]s and [[optical amplifier]] techniques.

The concept of lasing arose from a 1917 paper by [[Albert Einstein]], "On the Quantum Theory of Radiation". Einstein expanded upon a conversation with [[Max Planck]] on how [[atom]]s absorb and emit [[light]], part of a thought process that, with input from [[Erwin Schrödinger]], [[Werner Heisenberg]] and others, gave rise to [[quantum mechanics]]. Specifically, in his quantum theory, Einstein mathematically determined that light could be generated not only by [[spontaneous emission]], such as the light emitted by an [[Incandescent light bulb|incandescent light]] or the Sun, but also by [[stimulated emission]].

Forty years later, on November 13, 1957, [[Columbia University]] physics student [[Gordon Gould]] first realized how to make light by stimulated emission through a process of [[optical amplification]]. He coined the term LASER for this technology—Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.<ref>{{cite book | last=Taylor | first=Nick | title=Laser: The Inventor, the Noble Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War | publisher=Kensington Publishing Corporation | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8065-2471-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZ3dsdWRz6kC&pg=PA212 | page=212}}</ref> Using Gould's light amplification method (patented as "Optically Pumped Laser Amplifier"),<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=4053845A |title=Optically pumped laser amplifiers |status=patent}}</ref> [[Theodore Maiman]] made the first working laser on May 16, 1960.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last1=Garwin | editor-first1=Laura |editor-last2=Lincoln |editor-first2=Tim | title=A Century of Nature: Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World |chapter=The first laser: Charles H. Townes | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-226-28416-3 | page=105}}</ref>

Gould co-founded [[Optelecom]] in 1973 to commercialize his inventions in optical fiber telecommunications,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bertolotti|first=Mario|title=Masers and Lasers: An Historical Approach|publisher=CRC Press|year=2015|edition=2nd|location=Chicago|page=151}}</ref> just as [[Corning Glass]] was producing the first commercial fiber optic cable in small quantities. Optelecom configured its own fiber lasers and optical amplifiers into the first commercial optical communication systems which it delivered to [[Chevron Corporation|Chevron]] and the US Army Missile Defense.<ref>{{cite book | last=Taylor | first=Nick | title=Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel<!--sic: Google Books transcript is in error--> Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War | publisher=Kensington | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8065-2471-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZ3dsdWRz6kC&pg=PA225 | pages=225–226}}</ref> Three years later, [[GTE]] deployed the first optical telephone system in 1977 in Long Beach, California.<ref>{{cite book | last=Kangovi | first=S. | title=Peering Carrier Ethernet Networks | publisher=Elsevier Science | year=2016 | isbn=978-0-12-809249-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 | page=46}}</ref> By the early 1980s, optical networks powered by lasers, [[LED]] and optical amplifier equipment supplied by [[Bell Labs]], [[NTT Docomo|NTT]] and [[Pirelli|Perelli]]{{clarify|reason=Pirelli is a tyre company. Were they really involved in telecoms? If so, why is this spelling retained?|date=February 2025}} were used by select universities and long-distance telephone providers.{{cn|date=February 2025}}