William T. Kane

William T. Kane (September 8, 1932 - September 23, 2008) was born in Jamaica, New York to J.T.Kane, a doctor and Majorie Lillian(née. Davis) formerly of London, England. He held patents in crystallography and was a Physicist for Corning Glassware in Corning, New York. His dissertation for a Ph.D. in 1966 from the University of Missouri was in the field of X-Ray crystallography, Biomolecular Structure Determination Methods and heat-sensing developments in technology. At Corning he helped set international standards for the science of Fiber-Optics as used in communication.
Education and Career
He attended the university of Colorado in Boulder where he studied Geology, publishing in 1949 a paper on Sediment Size Analysis which calculated textual parameters using Fortran; university of Kansas at Lawrence and university of Missouri at Columbia. Kane served in the USAir Force as a flight navigator, serving in the 55th and 38th Strategic Air Reconnaissance Wing from 1953-1959 and earned a Distinguished flying cross and the U.S. Air Medal for his exploits during the cold war. His job as an electronic warfare officer were considered spy missions as they involved crossing the U.S.S.R. and were not publicly disclosed until after the Iron Curtain fell in 1989.
He became a reserve officer from 1959-1966 and retired at the rank of Air Force Captain. In 1969 he joined the 91st congress as a professional staff aide to the house veterans committee.
He worked for Corning labs (Formerly Corning Glass Works) developing early fiber optical cable technology. Advances in Optical fiber communications based on his patents for heat sensing enabled the transmittal increase 100-fold over copper lines from node to node spanning a ten-year period, these innovations later transformed the Internet and communications world-wide. He lived and worked in Big Flats, Corning and Lake Placid, N.Y.
Patents
Kane held three patents in Heat sensing technology and Crystallography which were used in the manufacturing process of fiber optical cables. Corning had a monopoly in the processes having won lawsuits to retain the rights. His PhD in 1966 was for X-Ray Crystallography, where the phase problem caused by the scattering of x-rays bounced off a crystal was the primary study.
Later Life and Death
Retiring to Cheyenne in 1993 he indulged his love for skiing and was an avid sportsman. He was active in the Rotary club. With His wife Virginia (Ginny), they had 3 girls, Gretchen, Ellen and Kathleen (Cindy) and a son, Ret. Brig. Gen. William P. Kane of Colorado Springs. He passed in a retirement home at the age of 76 after a lengthy illness.
See Also
Shirley Ann Jackson Concurrent Optical Fiber Patents

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