EoW July 2010

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The International Magazine
for the Wire and Cable Industries
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Whenyouhave finishedwith
thismagazineplease recycle it
Still a shining solution –
fifty years on
We don’t have to look very hard to find
a fiftieth anniversary these days. In 2010
we’ve already celebrated fifty years since
NASA’s first meteorology satellite, the
development of the copying machine, oral
contraception and the launch of bubble
wrap (originally intended as a decorative
wall covering, but it didn’t catch on).
Probably only one of those has genuinely
changed thewaywe live (whoever thought
they needed a copier?) but the latest half
centenary is of an invention that touches
everyone’s life, and will continue to do so
in ways we can’t yet imagine.
When it was first invented, the now
ubiquitous laser was accused of being a
“solution looking for a problem” and the
huge possibilities of this blend of optics
and electronics weren’t fully recognised.
However, many different types of laser
came along and, with them, the problems
they could solve. Calcium fluoride and
helium-neon lasers were followed in 1962
by the first semiconductor lasers, and
these are now the most common type.
Semiconductor lasers can be small and
inexpensive, and these are the lasers
found in supermarket bar code readers,
optical fibre communication networks and
the humble laser pointer. However, it was
a ruby laser that sent a beam to the Moon
in 1969 (it was reflected back to Earth by
a reflector placed by astronauts on the
Moon’s surface). Before long, lasers were
received by telescopes to measure the
distance to the Moon with a precision
said to be within 3cms. Not bad over
384,403km!
More recently, lasers have become
invaluable in medicine (eye surgery, just
for a start), scientific instruments, in CD/
DVD drives, for cutting steel or welding
cars, or for accurately positioning the
clusters of a robotic milking machine.
I’m told that laser (Light Amplification
by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is
a misnomer, and
that often a more
correct title is
Light Oscillation by
StimulatedEmission
of Radiation –
LOSER.
Like the bubble
wrap wall covering,
that could never
have caught on,
could it?
Gill Watson