engineering

Standard Telecommunication Laboratories

Standard Telecommunication Laboratories is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Standard Telecommunication Laboratories rather than just read about it. In short: Standard Telecommunication Laboratories was the UK research centre for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC). Initially based in Enfield, North London, and moved to Harlow Essex in 1959.

Key takeaways

Standard Telecommunication Laboratories belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Standard Telecommunication Laboratories to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Standard Telecommunication Laboratories was the UK research centre for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC). Initially based in Enfield, North London, and moved to Harlow Essex in 1959. STC was a subsidiary of ITT.

Notable Achievements It is now recognised as the birthplace of optical fibre communications, for it is here that Sir Charles K. Kao, George Hockham and others pioneered the use of single-mode optical fibre made from low loss glass. The laboratory also carried out significant research into semiconductor lasers. In 1972, Nature described work by STL physicist G. H. B. Thompson on gallium arsenide double-heterostructure lasers as a "notable advance", reporting a carrier-confinement region of 0.18 μm and a threshold current density of 820 A cm−2. In 2009 Charles Kao was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering optical fibre communication. During the 1980s the Laboratory also developed prototype e-Ink displays. Another famous name associated with STL is Alec Reeves, previously famous for inventing pulse-code modulation while working at the Paris labs of the parent company ITT in 1938, and for his invention of the wartime bomber navigation system OBOE. Alec headed a team working on various means of optical communication, prior to the emergence of glass optical fibre as the leading contender.

Ownership In 1991, the laboratories became a part of Bell Northern Research (BNR), following the acquisition of STC by Northern Telecom, which later became Nortel. Nortel subsequently encountered financial difficulties, and was broken up and sold off. The last remnants of the laboratories at the Harlow, Essex site, have now disappeared.

Redevelopment Of Laboratories Site Since the collapse of Nortel, the site has been redeveloped into a new high-technology business development called KAOPARK.

References

External links A Brief History of STL - By Vi Maile

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Standard Telecommunication Laboratories

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Standard Telecommunication Laboratories claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Standard Telecommunication Laboratories before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Standard Telecommunication Laboratories ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories

In research: Standard Telecommunication Laboratories appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Standard Telecommunication Laboratories is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in Essex, Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Enfield, Fiber-optic communications, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Standard Telecommunication Laboratories outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Standard Telecommunication Laboratories means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Standard Telecommunication Laboratories out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in simple terms?

Standard Telecommunication Laboratories was the UK research centre for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC). Initially based in Enfield, North London, and moved to Harlow Essex in 1959.

Why does Standard Telecommunication Laboratories matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Standard Telecommunication Laboratories?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Standard Telecommunication Laboratories.