Buy essay on Copper wire

Abstract
Copper wire and copper cables have been widely used during the last century. Nowadays, fiber optics is main competitor of copper wires in telecommunications. Brief history of copper wires, its development and types of copper cables are studies. Advantages and disadvantages of copper wire are analyzed. Perspectives of development for copper wires and recommendations concerning this type of wiring are given.

Introduction
Among conductor materials, copper is one of the most commercially important ones. Copper and silver have the highest conductivity compared to other metals or substances (Blake-Coleman 1992). Besides its conductivity properties, copper also has significant strength to be used for various purposes. Rolling and drawing of copper can be done with little power consumption. Also, copper is highly resistant to deterioration by oxidation because initial oxide coating of copper protects the other layers of metal from oxidation (Stanczak 2005). Also, copper is highly suitable for brazing, soldering and tinning. Meanwhile, welding copper requires effort since copper has high thermal conductivity, and this fact does not allow to create a sufficient temperature in the chosen area. Copper is also not widely used for casting purposes since it is difficult to cast it and the cost of material is rather high (Stanczak 2005).
Currently, copper wire is the most common material for building communication circuits; the history of cable networking started from copper wire, and until nowadays it remains the most popular means of connecting devices (Blake-Coleman 1992).
The cost of cable is the function of the cost of materials and of the manufacturing process; thus, cables with larger diameter, which involve more copper conductor and more insulation turn to be more expensive than cables with small diameter. Three main types of copper cable include coaxial, unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) (Gallo & Hancock 2002). The aim of this paper is to analyze the history and development of copper wire, its applications in telecommunications industry, advantages and disadvantages, and future perspectives of copper wiring.
1. Brief History of Copper wires
The history of copper wire started in 1877, when Thomas Doolittle, who was then a manager of a telegraph company (Connecticut), started experimenting with the result of new technological process – hard-drawn copper wire (Brooks 1976). Thomas Doolittle signed a contract with Ansonia Brass Company; the contract implied an innovative process for wire production, and it took four years to improve this process. The newly designed wire allowed to provide telephone services for greater distances, and in 1884, a line 292 miles long which connected New York and Boston was launched and opened for commercial services (Brooks 1976). In 1885 Bell and Watson conducted experiments with the line, and the first successful conversation happened on March, 27th; though the line failed after working for 90 minutes, this experiment was considered the beginning of copper wire success (Stanczak 2005). The West also supported this experimental wiring, and lines between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, as well as between Sacramento and San Francisco were launched. During the 1970s, development of telecommunications was immense, reaching its peak in 1979; finally, the growth of this branch stabilized between 1985 and 1992 (Brooks 1976). The decrease in copper wire expansion since 1980 happened due to technical purposes: firstly, smaller wires were being used (AWG 22 replaced by AWG 24, 26) and the implementation of multiplexing, or subscriber carrier (Blake-Coleman 1992). The decrease of copper wiring in 1980s was not related to fiber optics introduction; at that time, fiber optics was used for long-distance
Such development trend continued until 1992, telecommunications systems were quickly growing, and fiber optics finally started being used for the subscriber loop (Williams & Williams 2008). At that time, AWG 26 was finally replaced by AWG 24 (which contained 60% more copper per foot) as a standard.
Starting from 1994, the use and extent of application of copper wire has started to decrease again; using a 25-year estimate, it is possible to see that rate of copper growth became negative (3.3% decrease per year). Fiber optics is now becoming the main competitor of copper wire, it has strongly entered the feeder part of the subscriber loop, and is currently being used even for the final customer connection.
2. Advantages of Copper wires
Copper is one of the materials widely used in electronics; it is applied for many types of transmissions due to its favorable properties. For example, copper wires are used as primary medium for transmitting electricity, because of copper’s high conductivity. Other metals with similar properties do not have such high conductivity level; silver could be the replacement, but it is too costly to be used in most circumstances (Williams & Williams 2008).
Other important property of copper is its high malleability; it is possible to bend, manipulate, stretch and shape copper. Moreover, all these operations can be performed without spalling or changing the functionality of copper wire; copper wire maintain its conductivity under the influence of heat or cold.
Copper’s malleability allows to use various forms of copper wire; due to high malleability, wires can be produced extremely thin (e.g. thinner than human hair). In fact, a copper which is 4 inches thick, can maintain its functionality even if it rolled 20 million time longer. One more crucial properties of copper is its resistance to corrosion; since copper wire resists rust, it can be functional for a long time, and can be used in environments with high humidity.
Concerning telecommunications sphere, when Ethernet technology appeared, it was based on shared copper cable technology (Gallo & Hancock 2002). However, “as data speed increased from 10Mbps to 1Gbps, then Ethernet no more remained the shared medium and required point to point inter-connect” (Mueller & Ogletree 2004). For switching from shared medium to dedicated connection, Ethernet switches are used, and most of them have integrated LAN. However, in telecommunications, fiber is displacing copper wire: it is commonly used as medium for Gigabit Ethernet, and allows to cover distances up to eighty kilometers. Fiber optics is projected to serve as the means for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (Mueller & Ogletree 2004). Copper can also be used for these purposes, but it allows to cover distances up to 150 meters, and implies using higher power. Nevertheless, it is still possible to see copper wiring in such type of medium: hardware companies are working on the project of lowering down the powers for such solution.
Still copper is the major share for Ethernet interfaces, but looking at the trend, I think fiber will replace copper as Ethernet medium of choice. There are several advantages of copper that allowed it to become a greatly popular technology and due to which it is still implemented in many areas and networks (Mueller & Ogletree 2004):
 Infrastructure install base, i.e. existing cabling and equipments: Existing cables used in the networks can not support higher Ethernet speed and would have to be replaced. So rather than putting new copper cables, it is possible to put fiber. Fiber can easily support higher speed in future than copper wires; however, existing networks can be extended by copper wires without significant investment.
 Copper is easier to use and manage, in addition, it requires less technician training: Copper does not require special cleaning as it is necessary for fiber; thus, copper has lower operating expenses.
 Copper wiring is cheaper, and this was quite an important advantage a decade ago; currently, as speed of Ethernet standards increases, advantage of copper cheapness becomes less important. Hardware for higher speeds is becoming more complex and expensive and needs more expensive copper wire and more power. Even with better wiring distance allowed by copper wire is limited. Thus, all the above-mentioned factors are decreasing price advantage.
 Interconnects for copper cables are passive, and due to this fact networks based on copper wire can be extended with passive interconnects.