Light guided by a water jet (Colladon)
Luz guiada por un chorro de agua (Colladon)
- Date
- 1841-1842 · confidence high
- Place
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Credited to
- Daniel Colladon (with Jacques Babinet; later John Tyndall)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Colladon shows in Geneva that light is trapped and follows the curve of a water jet by total internal reflection. It is the first demonstration of the principle of the optical waveguide.
Babinet made a similar demonstration in Paris with bent glass around 1840; priority is debated and the date is fixed by Colladon's publication (1842).
What it led to
- Tyndall's demonstration at the Royal Society (1854)
- glass light guides and fibre bundles
- optical-fibre communications