Path: ...!feed.opticnetworks.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Cursitor Doom Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: how the laser happened Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:44:50 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 23:44:52 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="7d710e142c378f3c0814d874ebb75d9b"; logging-data="3532952"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18tzqZ4TTkvNsYYyavxN+ZUSFrCi7VBX94=" User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 Cancel-Lock: sha1:wgqVEjwaRljESKl7IWChdD65Cqg= Bytes: 2819 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. >