International Day of Light
Celebrating the engineer Ted Maiman: Inventor of the Laser on May 16, 1960
Charles Townes had predicted that the maser (as pioneerd by military) could be made to work also at optical frequencies and he got the Nobel prize for it. He got the recognition.
Gordon Gould applied for a patent (and got later on royalties) for the Laser. He got the money.
Ted Maiman, got the first laser to work on May 16, 1960 at the Hughes lab above Malibu Beach/Los Angeles on a very small budget and under time pressure, to everybodies surprise.
In this video Ted explains his invention. It shows the ingenuity of an engineer with little recognition, little money but tremendous impact.
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