Cover Story
Optics and Electronics in China
P. K. Cheo
This is the third of the IEEE delegation teams to visit China since the normalization between the two nations. These exchanges are part of the transnational programs of the IEEE to establish technical relations with China for the purpose... more>>
None
Alexander Graham Bell and the Photophone: The Centennial of the Invention of Light-Wave Communications, 1880-1980
Forrest M. Mims III
The invention of light-wave communications in 1880 by Alexander Graham Bell and Sumner Tainter is reviewed. The events leading to the invention, the optimization of selenium detectors and the phenomenon of sound emission by substances illuminated by a concentrated beam of intermittent light, are discussed. Finally, attention is given to Bell's photophone papers and patents and the opinions of his contemporaries about the significance of the invention. more>>