EoW July 2010

The International Magazine for the Wire and Cable Industries

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.

* US$33 purchase only Front cover: Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp See page 84 for further details E ditor :........................................ Gill Watson F eatures E ditor (USA) : ..........Dorothy Fabian E ditorial assistant : .................Christian Bradley D esign /P roduction : ................Julie Tomlin P roduction : ...............................Lisa Benjamin S ales M anager : ........................Paul Browne S ales & M arketing : .................Giuliana Benedetto ( I nternational ) Italy Hendrike Morriss

Germany Linda Li China Jeroo Vandrevala India

A dvertisement C oordinator : ............................Liz Hughes A ccounts M anager : ................Richard Babbedge S ubscriptions : ...........................Liz Hughes P ublisher : ..................................Caroline Sullens F ounder : ....................................John C Hogg

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E ditorial Dorothy Fabian

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I’m told that laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is

I ndia :

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?

Kolkata 700 053, India Tel : +91 33 2407 07 01 Fax : +91 33 2407 07 00 Email : jeroov@vsnl.com

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Gill Watson

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