Draft:Fred Paul Partus

  • Comment: Wikipedia is not a reliable source, patents are WP:PRIMARY. Phuzion (talk) 01:54, 27 September 2025 (UTC)


Fred Paul Partus
American Inventor Dr. Fred P. Partus
Born (1943-04-20) April 20, 1943 (age 82)
NationalityAmerican
EducationRutgers University
Tulane University (Ph.D.)
Occupation(s)Inventor, Engineer
Known forContributions to optical fiber manufacturing; Engineering Materials Achievement Award (1983)

Fred Paul Partus (born April 20, 1943) is an American inventor and engineer known for his significant contributions to the development of optical fiber manufacturing.

Early life and education

[edit]

Fred Paul Partus was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 20, 1943. He was a mechanical engineering student at Rutgers University, where he was named to the Term Honors list.[1] He received his Ph.D. from Tulane University in 1971 and joined Western Electric the same year.[2]

Career

[edit]

Beginning in 1973, Dr. Partus's work at Western Electric focused on the emerging field of lightwave communications. As a Senior Engineer at the company's Product Engineering Control Center in Atlanta, he was responsible for process developments related to optical fiber preform fabrication.[2]

Atlanta Fiber System Experiment

[edit]

Dr. Partus was a key contributor to the landmark Atlanta Fiber System Experiment of 1976, a project that tested a complete lightwave digital transmission system under field conditions and proved the feasibility of fiber optic technology.[3] The significance of the project was such that The Bell System Technical Journal dedicated a substantial portion of its July–August 1978 issue to a collection of papers on the experiment's design, components, and results.[3][4] The experiment's foundational importance is still noted in modern academic research.[5]

As part of this featured collection, Dr. Partus co-authored the paper "Preform Fabrication and Fiber Drawing by Western Electric Product Engineering Control Center," which detailed the manufacturing processes for the optical fibers used in the system.[6]

Dr. Partus holds numerous patents in optical fiber manufacturing.[7] His work covers methods for creating low-hydroxyl fiber preforms and controlling vapor delivery. His collaborations included work with John B. MacChesney on preform tube collapse[8] and with James W. Fleming, Jr. on methods for manufacturing refractory dielectric bodies.[9][10]

Awards and recognition

[edit]

In 1983, Partus, along with his colleagues Donald E. Procknow and John B. MacChesney from Western Electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories, received the Engineering Materials Achievement Award from ASM International. The award was given for the "development of materials processing technology capable of producing low optical loss, silica waveguide fibers, permitting introduction of lightwave systems into telecommunications applications."[11]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "HONOR STUDENT" (PDF). The Belleville Times-News. March 17, 1966. p. 20.
  2. ^ a b "Contributors to This Issue" (PDF). The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1892. July–August 1978.
  3. ^ a b Jacobs, Ira (July–August 1978). "Atlanta Fiber System Experiment: Overview". The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1717–1721. Bibcode:1978BSTJ...57.1717J. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02121.x.
  4. ^ Kerdock, R. S.; Wolaver, D. H. (July–August 1978). "Atlanta Fiber System Experiment: Results of the Atlanta Experiment". The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1857–1879. Bibcode:1978BSTJ...57.1857K. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02131.x.
  5. ^ Jiang, Jing (November 2021). A Study on Applications of Optical MIMO Technology to Space Division Multiplexing Transmission Lines via Optical Path Switches (PDF) (Doctoral Dissertation). Waseda University. p. 79.
  6. ^ Myers, D. L.; Partus, F. P. (July–August 1978). "Preform Fabrication and Fiber Drawing by Western Electric Product Engineering Control Center" (PDF). The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1735–1744. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02123.x.
  7. ^ "Patents by Inventor Fred P. Partus". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  8. ^ "United States Patent: 4,462,818". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  9. ^ "United States Patent: 4,909,816". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  10. ^ Fleming, James W., Jr.; Partus, Fred P. (1991). "Method for manufacturing an article comprising a refractory dielectric body". Ceramic Abstracts. 70 (11–12): index. 70-08248P.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Engineering Materials Achievement Award" (PDF). ASM International. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-09-27.