Lost & Found

[Eidetic]

Going through Ebay just now and saw this listing for an old Coherent Radiation 201 meter. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coherent-201...item53f43f1dff

Odd thing about it is the Line Lite Laser sticker on it. I put that sticker on that meter when at Line Lite in 1984, shortly after we broke off with the line of scientific sealed tube CO2 lasers that Spectra-Physics bought from GTE Sylvania. The arrows in the logo are my design. I just doodle arrows, and Jack Evans (my first boss and with the line since the mid-'60s) liked them. As soon as we got the stickers, I stuck them on a bunch of equipment around the shop, including this meter. Almost 30 years later and here it is again. Second time this has happened. First time was seeing an old GTE Sylvania model 941 (the short tube 3W model) with a tube I put in around the same time ('84) on Ebay, and I bid on it as a "vintage laser"!

Here's Jack in an early ad for the 941.

[Jem]

Nice find Bob. Just goes to show you're officially part of 'laser history' now

[JStewart]

There is a laser show provider in the UK that uses one these meters still on his displays to ‘demonstrate’ audience-scanning safety. He does so by just placing the photodiode in front of a scanning beam, and argues that the needle reading is representative of the MPE!

I’ve tried explaining until I’m blue in the face that the meter reading is meaningless as it is not indicating the peak power levels, but he won’t have it.

The worrying thing is that this veteran ‘claims’ to teach laser safety courses to operators and local authorities. Unfortunately the uninitiated fall for the bullshit.

Anyway, steering the thread back on topic, it was an interesting eBay find, with the story behind it