Vintage Early 60s Ruby Laser Head

[laserwayne]

Vintage 60s Ruby Laser Head:

SPECIFICATIONS:

• 1960s Vintage Ruby Laser Head
o Build By Howard Smith who wrote “Principles of Holography”
o Solid Silver Cavity 99.9% pure silver, weight of the pure silver: 128 oz
- silver is an excellent material for a cavity: Great thermal conductivity, great flash lamp reflectance properties
o Ruby Rod w/ Brewster cut ends: 10mm diameter X 100mm – excellent condition
- two flash lamp configuration -- the best for optimum pumping
o Excellent Pulsed Ruby Laser Head for large format Portrait Holography
o Needs a resonator, PFN power supply & etalon for holographic use

Great investment value with the silver alone -- not to mention the historical value! Built by some of the best physicists known to science. Probably the best performing laser head that has ever been built! They spared no expense for science back then.

From the pictures, please see the area on the side of the cavity where I used silver polish. The silver is real and pure. I am more than willing to do the acid test for you on the silver if required. Or you can arrange this yourself.

The world deserves for this laser head to be used by a top rank holographer or be put in a museum. It is doing no one any good sitting here on my shelf for all of these years collecting dust.

Terms:

- Please call to discuss price.
- PayPal
- Shipping Costs: Responsibility of the Customer
- Safe travel insurance: Responsibility of the Customer. Shipment FOB Laser Integration, Rochester, New York, USA


Wayne
585-738-0037
wayne@laserwayne.com

[Jem]

There is only one person who should get this (apart from me ). That person is Bob Hess (Eidetic on this forum), I suspect he'll be somewhat excited to see this post. Bob is an avid collector of vintage laser equipment and this deserves to be in his collection.

Cheers

Jem

[laserwayne]

Very cool, Jem. Thanks for the reply! Eidetic, hmmmm, I like him already, LaserWayne

[sugeek]

There is only one person who should get this (apart from me ). That person is Bob Hess (Eidetic on this forum), I suspect he'll be somewhat excited to see this post. Bob is an avid collector of vintage laser equipment and this deserves to be in his collection.

Cheers

Jem

THIS. Sell or give Bob is your guy.

[mikkojay]

Very cool, Jem. Thanks for the reply! Eidetic, hmmmm, I like him already, LaserWayne

Yes, it seems meant to be:
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...SER-Experience

[Eidetic]

This looks like an amplifier section out of a big old industrial laser. I'd like to see some evidence of documentation regarding its origins or original use. I know it's not "the second one in existence". I have a ruby laser made by Raytheon in 1960, their prototype for the first commercial lasers built by them in '61. There's no way I know of to date it because internal hardware for big ruby lasers looks pretty much the same throughout the '60s, but the size of the ruby rod suggests mid-'60s at the earliest to me.

I'd certainly like to have it in my collection, but the potential value of the silver (if it is in fact solid) has nothing to do with the value to me, which is quite low without supporting documentation. Also, the patina has been disturbed on the one side, further decreasing its value for display. Interesting piece though.

[laserwayne]

Hi Eidetic,

This laser head was built at Kodak research back in the 60s for experimentation that was being done in the field of holography. It was a single laser head that was never used in production. I have no documentation regarding it origins or original use. That documentation would reside in Kodak research lab notebooks which are not public.

I wouldn't really call the finish of the silver a patina. I would call it tarnish. The silver will tarnish again. I tested the silver using nitric acid. It turned a creamy color indicating that it is 90-100% pure. My guess is that it 99.9% pure because the silver came from Kodak silver recovery.

You are probably right about the approximate age of the laser head. Howard M. Smith demonstrated a ruby laser only months after T. H. Maiman. This head was designed for holography. I'm pretty sure it was not Smith's first generation laser that was designed to demonstrate lasing.

Thank you for your useful information and interest. Please feel free to contact me with any other questions that you might have.

Sincerely,
Wayne