ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993                   TAG: 9312010106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FIBER-OPTIC ORNAMENT

More than 800 fiber-optic strands were used in making the ornament.i

The spires contain 20 strands each, and the rest sprout from an aluminum distributor inside the ball. The distributor and other machine parts were made by M&S Machine Shop Inc. in Salem.

The strands in the spires are encased in acrylic tubes, which are filled with a polymer liquid to give them a bright glow.

No electricity is actually in the ornament. Two illuminator boxes will be positioned about 15 feet down on the tree and send the light through fiber-optic tubes to the sphere.

General Electric donates the decorations to the White House and would not disclose the ornament's price. However, the illuminator boxes alone cost between $2,000 and $3,000 each.

The ornament's creators said fiber-optic strands cost between $4 and $10 a foot. Nearly three miles were used on the ornament. 


 by CNB