Poking A Hole with a Blast From the Past

[buffo]

Yeah, same here Doc. The school library had a few books on lasers, and that's the first one I checked out. Came back a week or so later and checked out all the other ones (I think they had 4 in total). I must have checked out "The Story of the Laser" at least a dozen times though. I finally photocopied large sections of the book so I could have it with me at all times.

If you want a copy for yourself, I suggest you snag it while it's available. I grabbed mine several years ago, but a buddy of mine wanted one like 6 months later and we couldn't find it anywhere. He had to wait nearly a year before some copies became available again.

I think as libraries are going under the books get sold to resellers on Amazon...

Adam

[300EVIL]

Yeah, same here Doc. The school library had a few books on lasers, and that's the first one I checked out. Came back a week or so later and checked out all the other ones (I think they had 4 in total). I must have checked out "The Story of the Laser" at least a dozen times though. I finally photocopied large sections of the book so I could have it with me at all times.

If you want a copy for yourself, I suggest you snag it while it's available. I grabbed mine several years ago, but a buddy of mine wanted one like 6 months later and we couldn't find it anywhere. He had to wait nearly a year before some copies became available again.

I think as libraries are going under the books get sold to resellers on Amazon...

Adam

I just bought this copy on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Story-of-the...212046004r9540
I'm sure I've seen it before but it sounds like a must have for the collection.

[300EVIL]

Looks like I paid too much.

Plenty available here...
http://www.abebooks.com/products/isb...+of+the+Laser/

[Experimentonomen]

Ah the ruby laser, if i remember right, this kind of laser was the first laser ever invented.

[buffo]

You are correct. Charles H. Townes invented it back in 1960. (Yeah, they have a picture of it in the book!)

Adam

[300EVIL]

You are correct. Charles H. Townes invented it back in 1960. (Yeah, they have a picture of it in the book!)

Adam

That water is a little muddy.
The way I see it....

Townes invented the maser.

Gould "invented" the laser. ( on the books, never made a working demonstration.)

Maiman constructed the first laser, the ruby laser.

[Jem]

Yeah, same here Doc. The school library had a few books on lasers, and that's the first one I checked out. Came back a week or so later and checked out all the other ones (I think they had 4 in total). I must have checked out "The Story of the Laser" at least a dozen times though. I finally photocopied large sections of the book so I could have it with me at all times.

If you want a copy for yourself, I suggest you snag it while it's available. I grabbed mine several years ago, but a buddy of mine wanted one like 6 months later and we couldn't find it anywhere. He had to wait nearly a year before some copies became available again.

I think as libraries are going under the books get sold to resellers on Amazon...

Adam

If you're in the UK you can get a copy here...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=all

I just snagged myself a copy for the collection. Thanks for the 'heads up' Adam

Cheers

Jem

[Eidetic]

The phrase "invented the laser" is a tough one. Those mentioned all invented key parts of lasers, but it was Maiman's invention of the pulsed pump that led to the first one. If Maiman never existed, however, He-Ne would've been the first.

Picked up my copy of The Story of the Laser today too. Thanks for the recommendation. For anyone really interested, there's "The Laser in America" by Bromberg which is the hands down best book about the history of the laser. Another neat book to have is the 1967 Science Year by World Book, with the hologram inside. Here's a pic, lit by a 10mW diode laser:

[buffo]

That water is a little muddy.

True. And I agree that Theodore Maiman was the one who came up with the ruby rod cavity. But he based everything on what Townes did.

It's a worthy debate... Is a maser a laser? Some would say no, since the wavelengths were too long to be considered light (or at least "visible" light). But the process of creating a population inversion and then relying on stimulated emission to achieve amplification is the same for both...

Meh - either way, both men are mentioned in the book.

Adam

[Eidetic]

True. And I agree that Theodore Maiman was the one who came up with the ruby rod cavity. But he based everything on what Townes did.

Adam

I agree with you, except for the word everything. Townes and Schawlow blew off pink ruby as the active medium, even after Maiman demonstrated it worked. Then the Bell backpedaling began, with all their corporate might, which continues today. They denigrated his "stubby ruby".

And neither Townes nor Schawlow ever made a laser as described in the patent they were awarded for it, which was later revoked. In my humble opinion, if Townes invented the maser, Maiman invented the laser, and Gould named what Maiman did before he did it (unknown to him when he did). But then, what about Robert H. Dicke? He saw it comming in '56 but RCA didn't continue his work.