A Touch of the Light Fantastic

Fibre optics are replacing old-style copper cable...

Fibre optics are getting everywhere these days - even under the floorboards at Hemel office. Proving the point are Colin Chapman (left) and David Thorn.

Strands of glass little thicker than a human hair are carrying impulses of light to provide a faster, neater, safer link between BP Oil's computers and the men and women who use them.

And this high technology replacement for the humble copper wire is helping to over­come a list of problems rang­ing from overcrowding behind the skirting boards at Hemel Hempstead to attacks by rats at Grangemouth and Llan­darcy refineries.

Inventor

The science of the 'light pipe' was first discovered more than 100 years ago when a curious inventor noticed that light could be transmitted from one end of a jet of water to the other. Fifteen years ago, coffee tables throughout Britain sprouted those strange 'mares tails' of thin optical fibres which seemed to carry a swaying mass of pin-pricks of light.

But take the more serious development of fibre optics to its conclusion, and it could revolutionise wiring systems both at work and in the home. The TV and telephone of the future could depend not on electrical impulses, but on tiny flashes of light travelling along thin and flexible strands of glass.

All that, says BP Oil's Hemel Hempstead-based manager of distributed com­puting, Bruce Moulder, remains in the future. For the present. BP is working in the forefront of optical fibre tech­nology to harness its many advantages to the day-to-day business of running the com­pany.

"In the simplest terms, fibre optics use a small piece of glass fibre to replace a rather

lariter piece of electrical wire." explained Bruce.

"The only thing that travels down the fibre is light, so there is no risk of electrical shock. no possibility of fire, and no chance of picking up inter­ference along the way."

It was sheer pressure on space that led to the first practical application for fibre optics within BP Oil. As more people moved into BP House in Hemel Hempstead, more telephones were needed, more power sockets, more links between computer terminals and. Hemel's two Univac mainframe computers.

All these extra wires and cables had to be fitted in somewhere – and the only place was in the already jam-packed ducting behind the skirting hoards.

Cunning

So far, only data travelling between computers and their terminals is being handled by fibre optics. But thanks to a cunning system called 'modem time multiplexing,' a single length of optical fibre can do the job of many individual copper wires. Meaning just one extra cable instead of dozens behind Hemel's over­crowded skirting.

"The multiplexor splits the light signals travelling down the fibre into different slots, one for each computer terminal," said Bruce Moulder.

"In theory, a single optical fibre could carry all of BP Oil's data transmissions at the same time — that's the sheer capacity of the system.

"Looked at another way,one strand of optical fibre about twice the thickness of a human hair could do the job of a one-inch-thick copper cable."

Hemel Hempstead already has seven main optical fibre 'trunk routes' running through the main building and the tower block, linking them with the new computer suite cur­rently in the final stages of construction. It means that Hemel's average daily trans­actions of up to £18-million - the very lifeblood of the company — can travel literally at the speed of light and with­out any risk of picking up interference from adjoining power lines. And just how real that problem of interference can be comes from the recent case where lightning was con­ducted down copper cables to cause damage to 11 of Hemel’s computer terminals.

A start has also been made on bringing fibre optics to BP House in Victoria, where once again computer users will have the advantages of receiv­ing a cleaner signal without the risk of picking up data-distorting 'noise' from adjoin­ing power cables.

"In general, fibre optics give people using computers a better chance of doing the job and providing a service on time." said David Thorn, who is project leader in Hemel's communications co-ordin­ation unit.

It is the intrinsic safety of optical fibres' use of light, rather than electricity, to transmit data that has led to their introduction at BP Oil's refineries. At a stroke, optical fibres take away one possi­bility of a stray spark causing fire in areas where potentially hazardous materials are pro­duced or stored.

Communications engineers such as Colin Chapman, George Karvounakis and Ian Perry have installed optical fibre systems which will link the refinery computers at Grangemouth and Llandarcy with terminals in the stores and workshops.

But on the way. their hi-tech communications system came up against some rather old-fashioned problemsr.

Bruce Moulder explained: "The PVC covering on cables tends to go 'gooey' if it is in prolonged contact with hydro­carbons, so refinery cables have traditionally been lined with lead and protected by steel mesh. On top of that, rats have a habit of chewing their way through PVC insulation, and termites can also nibble away at cables if the radius is such that they can get their teeth into them. We had to overcome all these problems when installing the new optical fibre systems."

Closed-circuit

Although fibre optics are already working for their living, the technology is still at a relative stage of infancy compared to what may lie just around the corner. So far, fibres have only been able to offer 'one way traffic' to light signals, but developments are in hand to produce fibres which can send and receive signals simultaneously. Video signals can also be transmitted through fibre optics — a possible application would he closed-circuit television security systems. And voice and music transmissions are also possible down these light-transmitting strands of glass.

The fibre optic has come a long way from the coffee-table lamp — and its development is far from finished yet.

 Colin Chapman demonstrates the concept of fibre optics.

Taken from BP Oil News - October 1982

 

Focom Ltd

During the early 1980’s BP Oil pioneered the adoption of fibre optic communications in its embryonic  networks.

The main drivers were for safety within the then refineries (Grangemouth and Llandarcy) – light rather than electricity in cables; the weight of cables in floors and ceiling; cable duct capacity – space available; and potential capacity of the cables via further multi-plexing.

The supplier of this new technology was Focom Ltd, who were based on the Hunslet Estate in Leeds. We dealt with a few people at Focom Ltd, including John Iles, Ian Elliott, Martin Farrell and Mike Cloak (Sales Manager).

I recall visiting Leeds a few times in my dealings with Focom. They even had a fibre drawing machine to actually make the cables there.

The first demonstration of fibre optic cabling in BP  House consisted of a single fibre cable running a computer terminal on the 13^th floor training suite from the Univac 1108 computer room on the 1^st floor. The first problem to solve was how to run the trial cable, the solution was to throw the cable out of a 13^th floor window, down to the roof above the 4^th floor (over the restaurant area) and then back through a window on the 1^st floor. Senior BP management were invited to the demo in the training suite, it worked and everyone marvelled at the use and potential application of this new method of communication.

Focom Ltd later became Pirelli Focom Ltd.

Added by David F Thorn Friday 27 August 2010

Message received 15 August 2020 from Mal O'Neil who worked for Focom Ltd

I recently came across your BP BlogSpot which is of interest to myself and friend John Russell as we both worked at Focom Systems, operating out of the Leeds factory. In the early 80's we spent a significant amount of time working on the BP Hemel site, Britannic House with its high speed lifts, and other sites including LLandarcy, Grangmouth and Sunbury. It was always a pleasure to visit BP as the people were friendly and helpful. At the Hemel site we built good relationships with the Comms Staff including Steve Tipton and those you mention, Colin Chapman , George Karvounakis, Ian Perry plus many others but sadly their names have faded from the memory over time. It was always a pleasure to spend time at BP Hemel and Britannic House as you had a free vend coffee machine on every floor and an excellent 10p lunch in the BP restaurant, novelties we didn't have much of in the industrial north! I think I made excuses to call in when passing just for the lunch!
 
You mention the Fibre Drawing machine we had at Focom allowing us to produce stepped and graded index fibre cable along with the fibre/data transmission equipment we designed and manufactured from our base in Leeds. In addition to the many multiplexers you  purchased I should imagine many kilometres of the cable found its way under the floors at BP. The Fibre Drawing machine was run by John Russell in-between his Field Engineering outings which at the time took us all over the UK installing this new Fibre Optic Technology. We certainly felt we were part of the new communications era and working at the forefront of Fibre Optic Transmission development with Focom Systems. Much water has now run under the bridge since those pioneering days and reading your articles gave us an enjoyable trip down memory lane as we both hold fond memories of our time at Focom, BP and its staff. Regards Malcolm O’Neil

Added by David F Thorn Sunday 16 August 2020