Re: how the laser happened

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/

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