Head Piece from Maiman Laser
date: label: Date made
content: 1960
label: associated date
content: 1960
name: label: maker
content: Maiman, Theodore H.
label: maker
content: Hughes Aircraft Company
notes: label: Description
content: This object may be the first laser. It was made by Theodore Maiman and his assistant Irnee D'Haenens at Hughes Aircraft Company in May 1960.
label: Description
content: In 1959 Maiman attended a technical conference on the subject of lasers. Maiman heard several speakers state that ruby was unsuitable for a laser but grew troubled by some of the numbers they cited. When he returned to his lab at Hughes he began experimenting. By May 1960 he and D'Haenens constructed several small metal cylinders. Each contained a photographer's spiral-shaped, xenon flashlamp that surrounded a small cylindrical crystal of synthetic ruby. When they fired the flashlamp, the burst of light stimulated the ruby crystal to emit a tightly focused pulse of light--the first operating laser.
label: Description
content: Hughes Aircraft donated this and several other pieces of Maiman's apparatus to the Smithsonian in 1970. The crystal mounted inside this unit is from a 1961 experiment. While the donation records indicate that this is the first laser, Maiman wrote that he received the first laser as a gift when he left the company in April 1961. Several experimental models were made during the research, a common practice. So we may never know which unit actually generated the first laser light.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: California, Malibu
topic: label: Subject
content: Laser
label: Subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Lasers
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Hughes Aircraft Company, thru Dr. George F. Smith
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.330050
label: accession number
content: 288813
label: catalog number
content: 330050
objectType: label: Object Name
content: laser head
label: Object Name
content: laser apparatus
label: Object Name
content: laser
label: Other Terms
content: laser head; Components; Telephone and Telegraph; Telephone and Telegraph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (plate material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (housing material)
label: Physical Description
content: ruby (crystal material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 2 in; 11.43 cm x 5.08 cm