Germanium America, 30–50% of current fiber optic lines are unused dark fiber, sparking discussion of over-production and a future reduction in demand. Worldwide, demand is increasing dramatically as countries such as China are installing fiber optic telecommunication lines throughout the country. Germanium Germanium is a chemical element with symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature. Because it seldom
Crystal detector voltage of around 0.2V from a battery to make it more sensitive. Although the zincite-chalcopyrite "Perikon" was the most widely used crystal-to-crystal detector, other crystal pairs were also used. Zincite was also used with carbon, galena, and tellurium. Silicon was used with arsenic, antimony and tellurium crystals. During the first three decades of radio, from 1888 to 1918, called the "wireless telegraphy" or "spark" era, primitive radio transmitters called spark gap transmitters were used, which generated radio waves by an electric spark. These transmitters were unable to produce the continuous sinusoidal waves which are used to transmit audio (sound) in