New a Scene-Flix film · 1:44
Bellz Theorem, 8: Coherent Light
How it happened against how it gets told. In December 1960 at Murray Hill, Ali Javan, William Bennett and Donald Herriott got helium and neon glowing between two flat mirrors lined up to within a couple of arc-seconds, and made the first gas laser, the first to shine continuously. Nobody in the room could see its beam: it came out at 1.15 micrometres, in the infrared; they knew it by the meter. The story told later gives it a beautiful red beam, but the red one (632.8 nm) came in 1962, from Alan White and Dane Rigden, also at the Labs. The Labs called it an optical maser. As the story is told, the next day a phone call rode the beam. Labelled liberties: Dot, Gus and Mr. Pruitt are made up. Javan, Bennett and Herriott are house-style puppets, not likenesses. Song: Coherent Light, made for the show.
1 / 6
