Ruby Laser
date: label: Date made
content: 1978
name: label: maker
content: General Electric Company
notes: label: Description
content: Lasers have served as teaching tools in more ways than one. This ruby laser, made by General Electric (GE), inspired teenager Ebe Helm from New Jersey to learn more about lasers.
label: Description
content: Mr. Helm wrote: "this laser head was originally on display in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as part of an electromagnetic spectrum exhibit from GE. It was a working unit that would fire downward on a spool of typewriter ribbon when a button was pushed. The hole it burned could be observed from several angles around its display and through large magnifying lenses arranged over it. ... I first saw this laser on display during a class trip in 1972. The laser had been on display for some years, possibly since the 1960's, and was not working. After it had been removed to a basement store room I managed to talk the Franklin Institute into giving it to me in 1976. I used the components to make an operational ruby laser in 1977 at age 17."
label: Description
content: Mr. Helm donated this laser, and several others, to the Smithsonian in 2005.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Laser
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
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content: Lasers
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Ebe Helm
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0034.01
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0034.01
label: accession number
content: 2005.0034
objectType: label: Object Name
content: laser
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 cm x 13 cm x 53 cm; 5 1/8 in x 5 1/8 in x 20 7/8 in