Vintage Bell Labs Laser Parts
Today I took delivery of a pair of laser resonator mirror mounts which I believe to be from the mid to late '60s. They went from a long time Bell labs scientist, to a retired engineer/science teacher in a high school, to one of his students to build a laser at home, and finally to me.
In the mount to the rear, you can see the name "T. J. Bridges" stamped into its top edge. I've looked him up and see he was an early researcher at Bell Labs working with flowing CO2 lasers, amongst many other things. I've found an email for him and am awaiting a response. Anyway, here's a picture of C.K.N. Patel at his first CO2 laser, showing the same type mirror mounts on it!
Now I have to find out how many of this type of mount were made by Bell back then, and what was this particular set used for? In any case, they're a great bit of gas laser history, and will make fine shelf supports in a glass doored display cabinet full of other '60s lasers, artifacts and books, at least until I find a period plasma tube to place between them.
Here's another, much more recent picture of Dr. Patel with his laser. Notice the second resonator behind the one in front. So I know at least three sets exist.
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