Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 23:58:48 +0000 From: john larkin Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: how the laser happened Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:58:48 -0700 Message-ID: <8h4c7j5u98gbr20o7re43g2lg9h35mjgo2@4ax.com> References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 56 X-Trace: sv3-rmuq278ApkR8Da/BzT8aWjg0JH6av0Qz2Ucopw7b0yIN2pjoFGGI6C+iVMW95czokKi+AhuHEf4ByEq!LciiOGHwCX8o/dqQZcnf0aR6BuvRB6C1NcEK6vZmNl6LcXmG6zJWMAu9DbpPfMFQkODGmu7zCy4N!IUjZBQ== X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 3229 On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:44:50 +0100, Cursitor Doom wrote: >On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:32:56 -0700, john larkin wrote: > >>On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:56:36 +0100, Cursitor Doom >>wrote: >> >>>On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:05:21 -0700, john larkin wrote: >>> >>>>There was a thread somewhere above about photon wave/particle duality. >>>> >>>> >>>>This is worth reading: >>>> >>>>https://www.amazon.com/How-Laser-Happened-Adventures-Scientist/dp/0195153766 >>>> >>>>Einstein, in one of his fits of genius, predicted in around 1916 that >>>>under the right conditions, a photon could pass by an excited atom and >>>>the atom would kick in another photon, or add to the wave amplitude, >>>>depending on how you feel about these things. He called it stimulated >>>>emission. He also declared that the laws of thermodynamics made this >>>>effect impossible to use in practical situations. >>>> >>>>In 1951, Charles Townes invented a work-around trick and built the >>>>maser, a gaseous microwave oscillator. His superiors thought he was >>>>crazy to dispute Einstein and almost threw him out of grad school, but >>>>it worked. >>>> >>>>In 1960, Theodore Maiman at HRL made the first ruby laser, and Bell >>>>Labs soonafter made a HeNe. >>>> >>>>What's interesting is that any decent neon sign shop could have built >>>>a HeNe laser in 1920. >>>> >>>>HRL sounds like a very cool place, up in the hills above Malibu. >>> >>>Wasn't that where Jane Mansfield used to go out bathing? >>> >> >>Keep your mind on electronics, young man. > >My apologies, John. A rather obscure British cultural reference which >you wouldn't understand. Perhaps some British posters will recognize >it; we'll see..... > >> >>The Getty Museum is in Malibu. Go there if you can. Hearst Castle, >>too, up the road a bit. >> I was in New Orleans, an EE student at Tulane, when Jane died on US highway 90 in New Orleans East. It was ugly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield#Death