Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!reader5.news.weretis.net!news.solani.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jan Panteltje Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: how the laser happened Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:19:49 GMT Message-ID: References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:19:50 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: solani.org; logging-data="2098371"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@news.solani.org" User-Agent: NewsFleX-1.5.7.5 (Linux-5.15.32-v7l+) Cancel-Lock: sha1:+ha/SfcfaoYFgp3mSWJ4sPZL20Y= X-User-ID: eJwNwgkRADEIBDBLUFgocvjqX8LdJBBja1eDKd7P1Okihw6I11IPn5QeFNu7O6t9UBHjkXVzxIIW217C+vABPPAVXw== X-Newsreader-location: NewsFleX-1.5.7.5 (c) 'LIGHTSPEED' off line news reader for the Linux platform NewsFleX homepage: http://www.panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/ and ftp download ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/system/news/readers/ Bytes: 2964 Lines: 45 On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:32:56 -0700) it happened john larkin wrote in <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com>: >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. > >The Getty Museum is in Malibu. Go there if you can. Hearst Castle, >too, up the road a bit. I've been to Malibu, even did some work there... Did not go to any museum, but did go to the beach.