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NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 17:26:41 +0000
From: john larkin <jl@650pot.com>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: how the laser happened
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 10:26:42 -0700
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On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 17:07:09 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<cd999666@notformail.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 09:45:07 -0700, john larkin wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:39:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
>> <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 05:03:34 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>
>>>> On a sunny day (Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:23:40 -0000 (UTC)) it happened
>>>> Cursitor Doom <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote in
>>>> <v571as$3rs0j$2@dont-email.me>:
>>>> 
>>>>>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 <jl@650pot.com> wrote in
>>>>>> <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com>:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:56:36 +0100, Cursitor Doom
>>>>>>><cd@notformail.com>
>>>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:05:21 -0700, john larkin <jl@650pot.com>
>>>>>>>>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 ...
>>>
>>>Argh! Never mind. I believe Jane had terrible problems with lobsters
>>>when she went out bathing in Malibu. But you don't know anything about
>>>that, clearly. It obviously wasn't publicised in Holland.
>> 
>> This thread is about lasers, not lobsters.
>
>I know, John. My apologies. It's just that Jan keeps banging on about 
>lobsters and I got side-tracked.

I never knew that California had lobsters. It seems to, down south,
below about Monterey.

We get the big Atlantic lobsters at Safeway. We have crawfish here
too, and they are terrible. Good crabs and salmon and petrale sole,
which is an especially ugly sort of bottom-feeder flounder.

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/globalassets/sfw-data-blocks/species/sole/petrale-sole.png

We have lots of lasers.