Lasers circa 1970 or Manifesto on Coherency
Hello, fellow cravers of coherency. At the suggestion of Marconi, The following is my story of 35+ years experimenting with lasers. I am not a Laserist, Physicist, Optical Engineer, Laser Engineer or High Energy Particle Scientist. I truly respect these occupations, mine is a much less hi-tech venue…management in the mining industry . I’m just your average garden variety, “tinkerer” in the work shop, sometimes spending large sums of money on completely “unjustifiable” items, Joe.
My story begins 35 years ago. Lasers were only a 10 year old invention. Nixie tubes were the predominate display technology. The first moon landing was 6 months old. Woodstock had just happened. My HS Physics dept. had just received there first (and only) .5 mW HeNe laser. Out of this silver gray box came a line, a seemingly perfect straight line…and the light…never before had I seen such a light. The grainy. sparkly, unearthly sight of coherent light. I was HOOKED !
FF…3 years…the summer before my second year at college. The first (and only) time I ever found a sum of money…about $120. How fortuitous….just enough to cover a .5mW HeNe Metrologic Laser from Edmonds Scientific. Guilt-free expenditure on something I just had to have !!! Already had a respectable stereo…what else would you spend it on ????? IT WAS DESTINY.
Well, you must remember that in 1973, lasers were anything but a common dorm room item. We proceeded to set the unit up so that the beam output (puny that it was !) entered a polished Plexiglas crystal. This crystal was centered atop a 33RPM spinning record. ( Note: output plane was set up quite high…not CDRH standards, but high enough that beam path Not directed at eyes ) Needless to say, we were 10 years ahead of disco ( Not really a thing to brag about !!) BUT…this was an extraordinary sight …at that time….It was a better ice breaker than a cute puppie dog…by an order of magnitude !!! and No mess !!
Well, let’s speculate as to what that simple gray/silver box could provide in the way of harmless hours of entertainment. You could speculate that IF a few photons did stray out the dorm window !!!Again, remember the time frame…almost NOBODY had seen this type of thing before. Albeit .5mW is a weakling beam, that could be useful, in that a stronger beam would deliver the all telling “ Source de la Coherence”…not useful in this application. You could further speculate that IF such an activity did occur, the resulting reaction from J.Q.Public would be nothing less than pure astonishment. I/O operations would have likely been sequenced to promote maximum confusion and the ultimate nirvana would be to watch as “ eyes grew as big as saucers and they ran away thinking that it was either the evil reincarnation of Tinker Belle or the mothership was about to beam them up !!! “ It could further be surmised that such an operation would require a steady hand at the com. Selection and subsequent tracking being in manual mode , nerves would need to be steadied. Normal/ economical liquid methods would be required. IF such events occurred, they would have provided much appreciated and needed entertainment.
Well, from then to now, I have continued to “experiment”…Several DPSS’s, a HeNe, a 400mW Argon coupled to a GXL Laser Liteshow. My last purchase has been a 100mW red module from maXYZModules. Waiting on delivery!!
In closing…I speculate and propose this !!
For whatever physiological reason, it may be in human nature to be drawn to the display of coherent light. Purity of colour, perfect geometric display, unusual sparkle/ grain like quality of coherent light on beam target…I DO NOT KNOW !! I think the universal entertainment factor cannot be denied.!!! So, how can we display this light…in an every day utilitarian object…and combine both form and function ????? I propose an analog clock/auto sequence small diode laser display. WOW…now that is “out there”
Hang in there while I bring this home !!A clock has utility (NS). It is a justifiable room object. Most time display is …BORING…NO IMAGINATION !!! Let’s take a low to medium power Red ( I like red) diode laser. Mount it so that the beam output is centered on the shaft of an analog clock hands. Then, redirect the beam via a very small mirror which is attached to the clock minute hand. The resultant output would then be parallel to the minute hand and directed outward from the clock hand shaft. Then…place a series of sensors ( Hall Effect?)…one at each number on the clock face. Then as the clock minute hand comes into proximity of the sensor…a signal is sent to a simple STAMP processor. This unit would I/O the module for a short time period…every 5 minutes.(1~12).the module would output coherent light. If the STAMP were set up to turn the module on for 5.85 second interval…every 5 minutes, the module would last for approx 20 years…@ 5000 MTTF module life. Beam output could then be directed into a mirrored interior perimeter…to deliver additional coherent beams…at changing angles. Could be done cheap too. !!! A synergy of Timekeeping, Art and auto sequenced coherent light display ????????? Hope you enjoyed this “read” !!!Drop me a line…RDS
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