Abstract: A rod of etchable core glass material is inserted within a lead glass sleeve and heated in a furnace to drawing temperature and drawn from the furnace into a fiber. The lower end of the glass sleeve is collapsed around the core glass, thereby sealing the sleeve to the core rod. A vacuum is drawn on the space between the rod and the sleeve while in the furnace for outgassing the rod and sleeve and for eliminating gas tending to be trapped between the core fiber and its sleeve. In a subsequent step, a multitude of such glass fibers are assembled in a bundle, inserted within an evacuable glass sleeve, and heated to the softening point while drawing a vacuum on the bundle of fibers and the interior of the sleeve for further outgassing of the fibers. While the assembly is in the furnace, the exterior of the sleeve is pressurized to fuse the assembly of glass fibers together and to the sleeve to form a final boule which is subsequently transversely sliced to form plates which are etched to remove the core glass.

Abstract: In a fiber optic waveguide connector a plurality of sector jaw members, such as three elongated 120.degree. sector shaped jaw members are arranged around the end portion of the fiber optic waveguide to be connected. An elastic O-ring encircles the jaw members for clamping the jaw members around the outer periphery of the fiber optic waveguide which is to be aligned with a second optical element, such as a light emitting diode, or other optical transducer including another fiber optic waveguide. The clamped assembly of sector jaw members and fiber optic waveguide is disposed within a cylindrical bore in a connector housing structure. The jaw members are independently radially adjusted by means of a plurality of adjustment screws arranged around and passing through the housing to obtain precise axial alignment of the fiber optic waveguide being connected to the second optical element.