An Old Hologram on the Side

[Eidetic]

About ten years ago I started collecting vintage holograms and lasers. It's been mostly lasers since then because holograms made in the '60s and '70s are about as rare as things get. This weekend however, I added a real nugget! It's a copy of the world's first multi-color reflection hologram of a 3D image, made by Lin & LoBianco at Bell Labs in 1966.

The first time I learned about holography was at 12 in '69, in a book my uncle Pete gave me about lasers from that year. The set up shown in that article was the one used to make this hologram, only it showed a different object on the table and object lighting on one side instead of two. That pic is first below. This is a complex setup. I didn't know the lasers were behind a curtain. I didn't understand what was going on with it, but the idea of 3D images and lasers obviously made a big impression on me. But I didn't understand "parallax", and always wondered what that setup was, who did it and why. The same setup is shown in a July 1966 article in Popular Science, only there it showed the guys responsible. This pic is from an issue I found at my parents' house in the basement. I never saw it as a kid. I bought another issue online, and on my next trip home I recognized it there! The setup was also shown in an article in the January 1967 issue of Sciences et Avenir, featuring a different scene on the table.

Bell Labs Holo Sys3.jpgBell Labs Holo Sys1.jpgBell Labs Holo Sys2.jpg

The image was shown in Optical Holography in 1971, a standard reference book throughout the '70s, shown below. The hologram is of a few red and green balls on sticks, in a corner. It was made with 633nm light from a He-Ne laser, and 515nm light from an Argon ion laser (probably made by Raytheon) in a simultaneous exposure on kodak 649F plates with a special extra thick emulsion. The final pic here is the copy I have. It has an area of emulsion damage, but both colors and the "whole image" are there! Now I can see that the negative for the picture of this hologram in that textbook was reversed.

Bell Labs Holo.jpgBell Labs Hologram.jpg

This is a "Holy Grail" of my collection. Not only is it the oldest hologram I have, it's the oldest hologram anyone I know has (except for MIT), and it's creation can be well documented. It was found in 1983 while cleaning out a drawer at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington. It probably got there through J.M. Burch, a senior researcher there throughout the '60s working with interferometry. Instead of tossing it, the guy who found it (also in holographic interferometry) recognized that it was an unbleached multi-color reflection hologram and knew that meant it was very old. He kept it in a drawer for the next 30 years, then put it on Ebay where I saw it. I've contacted Larry Lin (who I met in the early '90s) and am waiting his response and story about it. I think MIT has one of these in their collection, but that would be the only other copy known. This 47 year old R&D hologram is as rare as a hologram can get. I'm so amazed it found its way across my path. Un-freaking believable!

[Jem]

As i've mentioned elsewhere, this is a brilliant find Bob . It's great that this has found its way into your collection, at least its future is assured to some degree.

Cheers

Jem

[Eidetic]

Just heard back from Larry Lin. He said only a couple of these holograms were made. No reason to make any more, there's no title for it, and they moved on. He has no idea how this one got to NPL in England. There may be another copy of his work in Stockholm, but he can't remember which image it was. And finally, the he-ne and argon ion lasers he used were built in-house! In '65! I understand that for the argon, and I guess he needed a bigger he-ne than they could get at the time. This hologram was made with custom lasers! 8^)

[SoulFeast]

So your Ar bounces off a mirror, another mirror, another mirror, and then a beam expander, and then prints on the kodak print.

HeNe off a mirror, another mirror, beam expander, and then onto the scene being imaged. Creating ambient light for the Ar the print onto the paper?

Interesting. Never really paid much attention to holography.

[Eidetic]

Argon and He-Ne beams come through separate holes in curtain at back. Argon beam bounces off mirror and meets He-Ne beam in beamsplitter cube. Combined red/green beam #1 goes out of beamsplitter down and to the right, then off mirror to illuminate plate as reference beam. Combined R/G beam #2 goes to the left and down to illuminate scene. Scene light goes from scene to plate. Expose plate, and develop like photographic negative. Re-illuminate plate with white light along reference path and see fully 3D image of multicolor scene, like the plate is a "window with a memory".