Cavity from the Townes ammonia beam maser
date: label: date made
content: 1954
name: label: associated user
content: unknown
label: associated institution
content: Columbia University
label: associated person
content: Townes, Charles H.
label: maker
content: Townes, Charles H.
notes: label: Description
content: In the early 1950s Charles H. Townes began a series of experiments in his lab at Columbia University. Working with World War Two surplus radar components (parts that he had helped design) and guided by Einstein's theories, Townes, wanted to build a microwave device to use as a spectrometer. The US Navy funded the work, hoping Townes would develop something useful for radar. With his colleagues, James Gordon and Herbert Zeigler, Townes created a microwave amplifier using ammonia in a technique he called microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation--MASER.
label: Description
content: Townes first device operated in April 1954 but was rather large and bulky. This piece is from the second, slightly smaller ammonia maser apparatus operated in a few months later. The maser beam stayed tightly focused and showed a very constant frequency. A maser lay at the heart of the Bell Labs antenna that Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias used to discover the cosmic microwave background radiation--the remnant of the Big Bang origin of the universe.
label: Description
content: Although scientists used masers for only a few tasks, the concept encouraged researchers to experiment with higher energy levels--devices they referred to as "optical masers." In 1960 several teams of researchers developed different types of optical masers, devices that we today know as LASERs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Laser
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Charles H. Townes and Columbia University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.323891
label: catalog number
content: 323891
label: accession number
content: 260038
label: accession number
content: 260038
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Maser, Ammonia Beam, Part of
label: Object Name
content: maser component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 1 in x 1 7/8 in; 11.43 cm x 2.54 cm x 4.7625 cm