Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!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: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 05:03:34 GMT Message-ID: References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 05:03:35 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: solani.org; logging-data="2140420"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@news.solani.org" User-Agent: NewsFleX-1.5.7.5 (Linux-5.15.32-v7l+) Cancel-Lock: sha1:HpqtV9Y9vnVXFOljAcGZayqa+A8= X-User-ID: eJwFwYEBwDAEBMCVCF4yDur3H6F3YVBMOgIeDG7NKz6SaX2l3dN1H00mNiyuH9E8Yg44e+Q72PqqgZgc/QFgpxWQ 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: 3504 Lines: 55 On a sunny day (Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:23:40 -0000 (UTC)) it happened Cursitor Doom wrote in : >On Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:19:49 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote: > >> 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. > >Did you see Jane? What about lobsters? Any lobsters around? Na, but some other beatiful women I met. Last time we went looking for edible seaweed ...