Path: ...!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: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:23:40 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 50 Message-ID: References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 19:23:41 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="77e84bb6ea6ded47f8498eafece48135"; logging-data="4059155"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19BRnhDxYKnLtvcthvhe9pcfmc13/C7ltI=" User-Agent: Pan/0.149 (Bellevue; 4c157ba) Cancel-Lock: sha1:x5stB7skr1YyEUYTaeQfJCCU0PQ= Bytes: 3012 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?