Fiber Optic Cable When we hear the word fiber optic today we think about it, as being a newer, faster way of communication, and it is very true that it is one of the fastest ways to communicate and send data, however it is not exactly new. Optical communications systems date back as far as two centuries ago, to the “optical telegraph” that a French engineer by the name of Claude Chappe invented in the 1970’s. In 1880 a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell patented an optical telephone system, which he decided to call the Photophone, but his earlier invention, the telephone, proved to be far more practical. During the 1920’s, two men by the names of John Logie Baird (from