50th Anniversary of Laser Technology – the Tool of Light

On 02.12.10, In Home, Industry News, by Headland Machinery

The “tool of light” has become a key technology. That is reason enough for TRUMPF, a pioneer of industrial laser processing, to celebrate together with you the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser. Their customer magazine ‘Laser Community’, as well as a website, are both dedicated to this special occasion.

In May 1960, Theodore Maiman ignited the first laser flash. In December 1964, laser pioneer Charles Townes received the Nobel Prize. Only thing is, the new era that was promised was a long time in coming.
In 1960 laser technology seemed certain to change the world. People said it would soon be able to heal eyesight, transmit signals and bore, cut or weld workpieces. It would guide, locate or destroy rockets, measure pollution in the atmosphere or even spark off nuclear fusion.

	1955 – When it all started: Charles H. Townes (left) and James P. Gordon present their laser, the technology that the laser emerged from.
	1960 – Ali Javan (center), together with Donald Herriott and William R. Bennett Jr. (from left), lights his helium-neon laser, invented shortly after Theodore Maiman’s ruby laser.
	1960 – Arthur L. Schawlow in his lab. Charles Townes and Schawlow sketched out the idea for the laser in 1958.