Path: ...!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: how the laser happened
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 18:08:52 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 89
Message-ID: <v59obk$f0ue$1@dont-email.me>
References: <s2ta7jpomhs58bnntb4nut6pqc4ljskpac@4ax.com>
 <d5cb7j96v01rnj2ub44r39c9ghet2t6smv@4ax.com>
 <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com>
 <v55qe6$20163$1@solani.org>
 <v571as$3rs0j$2@dont-email.me>
 <v58ab7$21a84$1@solani.org>
 <v59j4s$e196$1@dont-email.me>
 <k6kg7j5rqjd4r9igl9vk329h27pos4adr8@4ax.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 20:08:53 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="d707fb8f348e1e87cd34ff9bbc027c93";
	logging-data="492494"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19sTvQ+5XQqs51p7XLL8ygf"
User-Agent: NewsTap/5.5 (iPhone/iPod Touch)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:HY4MuIrGHzW8wHZ0b0hB2n3b3RA=
	sha1:5vftMa/nkls2LIKKuXKK3M4wBNo=
Bytes: 4579

john larkin <jl@650pot.com> 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. 
> 
> 

Well, Schawlow famously said, “Anything will lase, if you hit it hard
enough.”

I expect that includes lobsters. 

Cheers 

Phil Hobbs 

-- 
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics