AV Geeks 3-4-2024

streaming show where we watch old 16 mm films and think about them um so obviously I'm not at the archive today um this is a pre-recorded show because I'm actually undergoing a medical procedure that will probably knock me out uh and I will not be able to do the show I'll probably won't be up for it um but I still wanted to show you films and and um so this like last time I had a procedure uh this it's not going to be as crazy as uh the balloon show that I did which all the balloon Clips this is actually going to be full films about lasers and Stones um basically I have bladder stones and they're going to go in with a laser and they're going to break them up so I have films no films specifically about the procedure but I have films about lasers uh so uh I have tools for cutting Stone axes to lasers so that involves stones and lasers a little bit uh laser safety which is a great NASA film making small rocks out of big rocks which is a road construction uh video so it's not real it's not on 16 but it's still pretty great uh laser a light fantastic which is a 21st century Walter KRON kite CBS show and uh then uh I've got some footage of the process of the procedure um that we'll show at the end um so thanks for tuning in thank you for your well wishes uh this should be a easy procedure and I should be back tomorrow Tuesday and uh I can give you all the the details all right everybody thank you so much for tuning in uh if you like what you saw hit the thumbs up uh you can also donate via the super thanks button ko-fi.com avgeeks patreon.com avgeeks or you could just contribute comments and watch what we do all right everybody have a great day and we will uh see you tomorrow bye [Music] e [Music] e [Music] e [Music] we are tool making animals and some of the first tools were made for [Music] cutting tools of stone Flint [Music] bone [Music] modern tools of stainless steel or other steel alloy each suited to a specific [Music] job [Music] with the wrong tool the job can be difficult the results disappointing for each kind of material to be cut there's a tool that's right for the [Music] job [Music] he [Music] a [Music] modern machine tools developed for specialized cutting a high-speed saw to cut the hardest Steel diamonds they'll be cut for shape for Brilliance their value will depend on the accuracy of each tiny [Music] cut the only sharp edge hard enough to cut a diamond is another Diamond that can be in the form of small diamond particles attached to a thin metal disc and used as a [Music] saw polished cut and cut again until there are 58 sides 58 [Music] facets the erosive force of water carving Solid Rock into random shapes this force can be controlled and used as a cutting tool a narrow stream of water moving at high speed under great [Music] pressure [Music] [Music] a narrow group move cut by the eroding force of water tools for another kind of erosion [Music] cutting a corrosive chemical can carrying charge particles ions through an electrical field cutting by actually loosening [Music] molecules electrochemical erosion it can be used on any material that will conduct an electric [Music] charge heat can be a cutting tool oxyacetylene torches creating high temperatures causing a chemical reaction that does the cutting the new materials of the Space Age they require new tools and new and more sophisticated techniques of cutting [Music] a device like the one that forms a picture on a television screen an electron gun its power concentrated and intensified into a high energy strain focused on a small spot it will melt its way through the hardest metal [Music] [Music] another high energy process a stream of ionized gases heated to 20,000 de C hotter than the surface of the Sun [Music] a beam of light a laser can be a cutting tool flashes of light stored up then released in a burst of concentrated energy the laser beam directed through a complex Optical system and tightened to a sharp Focus yes we are tool making animals almost everything we use has to be [Music] cut [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the laser a useful tool in Industry science and medicine but the laser is a double-edged sword on one side a beneficial tool on the other a dangerous instrument that can be harmful to those who use it the beam of a ruby laser can burn through Steel [Music] instantaneously [Music] some laser beams cannot be seen the CO2 laser beam is not visible at any time only its effects can be seen [Music] normal clothing offers no protection from the laser beam almost any fabric will catch fire not only is the direct beam dangerous but Reflections Also may be hazardous an ordinary diamond ring will scatter Reflections in many directions this invisible Hazard can cause much damage to the eye two kinds of reflected beams may be present in laser operation specular and diffused specular beams are reflections from a lens they can be thrown in any direction from the lens surface anyone in the area may come in contact with the reflections specular Reflections in turn May reflect off of any number of objects in the area even turning the head May not be a protection diffused beams are reflections from the laser target area diffused Reflections tend to spread the beam over a wider angle often diminishing the intensity in some instances contrary to the obvious the farther away one stands from the target the greater will be the damage to the eye eye damage can be caused by very low energy levels it takes only a small amount of the output of a one jeel Ruby laser to cause injury to the eye laser radiation Falls within a very narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum various wavelengths cause damage to different parts of the [Music] eye in the visible region most of the radiation is focused by the lens onto the retina the usual place of injury the focusing effect increases the intensity of the radiation on the retina for lasers operating in the infrared near the visible the effects can be similar to those of the [Music] visible far infrared radiation however is absorbed by the cornea and conjuctiva if the wavelength is shorter than that of the visible it is ultraviolet and is absorbed by the cornea and the conjuncta at ultraviolet wavelengths closer to the visible region because of the focusing characteristics of the eye both the cornea and the lens may be [Music] injured at ultraviolet wavelengths approaching the visible range the radiation at the retina may be more intense than in the intervening tissues safety glasses should be worn at all times during laser operations since protective bware is available for different kinds of lasers one must be certain that the glasses which are to be worn provide protection at the laser wavelength which is to be used wavelength must be noted on the [Music] glasses for long range laser uses such as in satellite tracking there are several ways of figuring safe levels of exposure one of these the nomogram figures in the loss Factor due to the beam passing through the atmosphere and through the tissues of the eye the aperture of the average pupil the laser output energy in Jewels the concentration of energy on the [Music] retina and the beam Divergence thereby calculating a safe [Music] distance as part of NASA's Earth physics program several satellites are being tracked by the laser ranging systems located at Goddard space flight center and other facilities in the United States anyone in an aircraft intercepting this Beam at close range could conceivably receive serious eye damage to prevent this from happening the lasers operate in conjunction with radar and visual Observers [Music] this is radar we have spotted a bird kill your laser [Music] Roger in order to provide a safeguard for low flying aircraft the laser operator works with a visual Observer during tracking operations aircraft coming kill the laser Roger the high voltages required for the operation of lasers present another safety hazard the high voltage power supply it is designed to be safe when the power supply door is open the safety interlock on the access door automatically shuts off the power supply however there still may be high voltage remaining high voltage which can kill instantly because of this danger maintenance should be performed by two individuals since several manual operations may have to be handled simultaneously to make certain it is safe to work inside all high voltage points must be grounded and remain grounded this will dissipate any stored charge remaining in the capacitor this demonstration shows what may happen if it remains [Music] charged many of the materials normally used around laser operations are flammable and specular Reflections could set them a [Music] fire [Music] cryogenic materials can be dangerous this bottle of dry nitrogen should be strapped securely to a solid object should the bottle fall over and the regulator break off the gases will Propel the tank with extremely destructive force laser operation may result in the production of dangerous gases in this demonstration a synthetic object is struck with a laser beam thereby releasing toxic [Music] gases the laser laboratory should be ducted for the safe removal and disposal of various toxic gases any room in which a laser is operated should have certain basic safety features the laser and its power supply should be positioned against a blank wall so as not to block any Escape Route for the operator indicator lights on power supplies should be visible to the operator when wearing laser glasses there should be an adequate beam [Music] stop the laser system should be isolated from any other activity in the room with a safe partition such as a blackout curtain or folding screen all windows and door windows should have blackout curtains or some other absorbent material safety interlocks should be provided for All Doors the primary entrance and the secondary entrance such as the isolating screen the interlocks are connected to the power supply when the power supply is turned on the interlock switches lock the doors so that no one can enter during laser op operation except in emergencies the lock should not prevent quick exit from the room exhaust ducting should be installed over the target area to carry off toxic gases the laser should be positioned well below normal eye level laser warning sign should be displayed prominently at all entry doors and near all laser operations the laser can be a dangerous instrument it can be harmful to those who use it but to those who use it safely it is a tool which can benefit [Music] mankind [Music] the fact that it's it will produce will take down big rock and produce something that is drivable at a roughly a a third or a quarter of the cost of having to bring down in a cushion of crushed rock is a major cost Advantage well I guess what we found out is is the crusher is the easiest part of the operation it runs along pretty smoothly there's no problems with that the hardest part is the graters and then behind that the Finish blading and the water trucks that go on we have a lot of roads like this particularly on the real grand where we have material in place where this would work very well we can now recover what was once a wasted resource and that's the oversized rock that typically lines uh ditches or lies in Wind roads alongside of the road an hour to drive from the bottom them up to here before we did the road work on here and now made it in about 15 minutes so it's providing extremely good road [Music] surface we're in the chura mountains right now and we're doing Road restoration on the onion saddle Pinery Road and this road has uh not had this kind of Maintenance in probably 20 or 25 years and the road surface had become cobbles and and a real uncomfortable road to drive for an arterial road we uh were fortunate to find a mobile Rock Crusher that uh you're able to bring up here and start uh a process that this the first time it's happened in the country um finding is that it will crush anything that we have in this area from the uh Lal fan material which is the round cobbles the Riverstone up into the material up on top here which is fairly fractured and easy to break up so hardness has not been a problem at all we uh we pull material from the ditches and we scarify the road bed trying and scarify it down about 6 in and uh utilize all the material up to 12 in in diameter including 12 in and then uh wind r that into the middle of the roadway there we uh uh add water in order to keep the dust down and provide uh uh moisture to the soil trying to get the optimum moisture content at that point the we uh bring the crusher in and uh it makes its pass and in one pass it takes all of that material and crushes it into between 1 in and 1 and A2 in minus it runs along pretty smoothly there's no problems with it but takes the the hard work and the coordination it's keeping everything else around it running we've got two two motor graders running what we have to do first thing in the morning is have both of them go ahead of The Crusher and rip the road and form the windr and get far enough ahead to where the crusher has plenty of work to do so he doesn't end up stopping the road is very narrow it's windy the biggest problem actually is water it's very dry it's it's dryest time of the year and getting water has been a real challenge we've got the public traveling on the road so we have to stop them for upwards an hour at a time but most of the people whove had to stop have been pretty friendly and um most of them are bird watchers they stop watch the birds while they wait and uh I guess they're they realize that they're out in the forest and they shouldn't be in a big hurry and they relax and enjoy it right this project is on the canos River Road which uh serves a primary access from the state highway to a Federal Highway it's a through Road the reason why we chose this project of course one was the fact that the material lend itself to this type of an operation we felt that it would work the road basically was not even graveled gravel was all worn out what little there was and we felt that we could get a large amount of work done at a fairly reasonable cost you can stand right right beside the machine while it's working you know you can use it on a main road and and still Route traffic right by the machine while it's working with the exception of the crusher itself it can be done with equipment that we all have and that the counties have so there's no specialized equipment needed other than the the uh presser itself so I think the potential for this type of a project is uh substantial in on most of our forest here in Colorado what we have here this is the uh the part of the machine that does all the work it's our rotating drum it rotates at about 1,000 RPM the machine um has a 225 horsepower CAT engine and a 3 to1 uh transmission reduction this drum will rotate up and these hammers lift the material up against the anvils up on top and crush it and the uh if you take a look in there closely you can see the distance between the uh hammer in the Anvil the the uh Rock crushed rock has to be that size before it'll come out the back of the machine different than other equipment you have intense amount of uh repairs intense amount of Maintenance that's needed with this uh you you have to have a service trucks with it that are equipped welders torches uh just the whole nine yards it it requires a lot of heavy maintenance and dedication by the uh employees and about uh a couple hours a day at least and uh that's changing the Hammers and that's checking over different items that may have broken the crusher generally under go some serious vibration as it goes through the Rock and crushes it and uh that just tends to pull everything part over time when Once the material goes through the crusher we can expect with new hammers approximately uh 2 in and minus and uh as the Hammers begin to wear we'll get up to 4 in minus material as the Hammers just begin to drop and uh we usually don't go anym now cuz by that point we're getting too close that rotor and we're and we always are trying to protect that rotor we're out here today on Dixie Mountain Lookout Road for a mobile Rock crushing demonstration Dixie Mountain Lookout road is on the plumis National Forest in California this project has been a partnership between the sand Deus technology and Development Center region five our regional office and the plumis national forest it's a single Lane Road fairly steep gradient going up to Dixie Mountain Lookout impossible Road for us to maintain with the cobbles and the doners in the road we couldn't blade it anymore we were looking at almost the total reconstruction if we wanted to do any improvements to this road plus the cost of bringing in material to improve this road with the minimal traffic that's on it we did it didn't warrant the cost I am Tim Pasqual with the Cordo National Forest equipment operator out of Tucson Arizona um here working on the plumis national forest Dixie Mount Lookout Road uh this project is a little different than what we're have worked on in previous projects uh due to the fact it's a level two Tope Road it's uh not as wide as what we're used to it's a little different whereas uh the wind rolls are a little more intensive in terms of building them it uh takes a little more time it can be very tedious but uh running AC Crusher you always got to be aware of the changes at the level of the road uh you got to constantly be aware of the RPMs and and and your power unit on your machine keeping them keeping them constantly working together uh ideal size is anything below 16 in diameter and lower because of the size of the opening that it feeds into the machine it does an amazingly good job of breaking up this type of very coarse Rocky material that uh has been a real maintenance problem in the past on this particular Road particular rock on this project is a it's a mixture of a volcanic rock in in a in a matrix it's a it's fairly hard rock the machine seems to be keeping up at a production rate at it comparable to what we they've seen on other projects and what we saw down on the lower part of this project in some of the softer rocks so it it seems capable of handling very very hard rock My overall impression of of this machine is that you know it's an excellent tool in a in a fairly specific type of application where you've got you know if you've got roads like like this one was where it's very bony if you've got roads that have a lot of coarse material rock on it it's ideal because it can give you a a surfacing that's that's not a not as high a standard as a crushed OT but it's a suitable surfacing that's a lot better than a very Rocky surface for about a half to a third the cost one of the reasons we picked this road as a demonstration is it was a road that was extremely difficult to maintain the lookout who drove up and down here I talked to him when we were up looking at it and considering this road and he just said I'm beating my truck apart and this was a road that was so bony that you just you could not maintain it so the beauty of this of this tool on this road is it'll come in here and take a section Crush that rock down so that you have a road that is maintainable we have a lot of rem remote roads that are you know a long way from a commercial Rock Source and when you can take a road like this and make it maintainable for $10,000 a mile range you you've got a tool that will work before I came I didn't really have any idea what to expect you know I kind of expected what you'd see dumped out of a belly dump you know nice graded Rock but of course we knew that wasn't going to happen the real test to this road is going to be 2 years from now when you come back here has it compacted down has it maintained itself you know are we able to maintain a drivable surface I mean this is an area that does not get extremely heav rainfall or else these fines would have washed off this road already uh so I think we picked an ideal site I I think the future of this technology really comes into having the technology somewhere in the region we have 18 Forest here that all have a few roads that could benefit from this type of [Music] Technology [Music] since the universe began light has remained unchanged now man has created a new kind of light with powers and properties unlike anything thing that existed before laser light pulses of laser light can punch holes through a steel blade on okay watch your eyes a continuous laser beam is a bloodless surgical tool a light knife that burns away disease tissue and coagulates blood before it can flow leaving surrounding areas unharmed look all right unifor ready laser light is so new its full potentials lie in a world we have only begun to build the laser a light fantastic a preview of tomorrow's technology man-made light a forerunner of an increasingly man-made world the world of the 21st Century [Music] the sun has always been the ultimate source of light for man across 93 million miles of space it showers the Earth with light and heat to sustain life the sun is a thermonuclear Inferno its light is the product of atoms radiating energy as they joso one another or break apart normal light is a product of such spontaneous Atomic [Music] activity laser light is something new atoms in the sun emit uncontrolled light energy the laser makes atoms emit orderly light its energy differs from normal light as much as a well- drilled Army differs from a mob the regimented light from a laser can be focused to a Spot 250 billion times hotter than an equivalent area on the surface of the Sun the Laser's unprecedented Powers come from the nature of light itself light energy can be visualized as a procession of waves traveling at 186,000 m/s light waves differ in frequency and intensity we know these differences as the colors of the rainbow normal light sprays out in all directions it's a jumble of many frequencies or colors like the Soundwave jumble we call static a laser amplifies light wave energy and organizes it into an intense beam a kind of light that doesn't exist in nature coherent light coherent light waves March in step like the sound waves of a pure [Music] tone the laser is only 10 years old in 1958 Charles towns and Arthur sh conceived the basic theories behind laser light in 1960 Theodore Mayon created the first working laser device at Stanford University this reporter spoke with Arthur charow there are already quite a large number of different kinds of lasers and some of them like the little one over here uh are useful for uh all sorts of laboratory things lining things up it gives a straight beam of light not very powerful uh and is very handy for education purposes you can show the properties of light in very simple way isn't very powerful you can stick your hand in front of it and nothing much happens although if you look straight at it uh it really does look like a pretty bright thing what about more practical uses outside of the laboratory the classroom well the same straight line beam is uh very useful for whenever you want a straight line for example there are machines now which uh will uh guide tunnel drilling machines they won't drill the tunnel but they guide uh they shoot a laser beam and the uh drilling machine rides the beam and stays uh drills a straight tunnel main power is on a beam of light is Nature's straightest line light waves also vibrate at extremely high frequencies this makes light an attractive medium for communications the greater a waves frequency the more message information it can carry normal light waves are too disorganized to carry Communications very far a Laser's organized waves are ideal theoretically all of the world's present Communications could be carried by a single laser beam this is a laser Communication System developed by Bell Laboratories normal television signals are converted into a code of electrical pulses the laser light waves carry this pulse code at the receiving end the pulses are converted into normal television pictures okay today we are far from filling laser lights 80 million Channel capacity by the 21st century however picture phones in every home and personal computers May demand laser Communications despite its vast Communications capacity laser light is still light any obstacle can interrupt it a human hand a mountain or clouds in the atmosphere messages carried by unprotected laser light would be in constant danger of interference one solution is to create a laser pipel line there Remains the problem of guiding the beam in the pipe and keeping it in Focus over great distances even the best glass lenses absorb some of the light and weaken the signal Bell lab scientists have come up with an ingenious solution to this problem a lens seen here in cross-section that uses the density of air rather than the density of glass to focus the beam an increase in air pressure increases air density changing the density focuses the laser beam as it passes through the air in the pipe this communication system uses a continuous laser beam there is a second form of laser energy the short puls this laser at corad Corporation is used to balance the rings of a gyroscope a laser pz lasting for 50 millionth of a second creates a 3,000 Dee Hotpot on the ring surface this temperature vaporizes tiny bits of metal correcting the balance of the Ring pulse lasers have unique advantages as welding tools in 3,000 of a second this laser welder can focus 5,000 de onto an area less than the diameter of a human hair it creates a perfect weld chemical waste products are vaporized before they can contamin at the Joint pinpoint accuracy is needed in the microscopic world of microelectronics tiny joints must be soldered without affecting adjacent heat sensitive materials the laser pulse melts the tips of these gold wires with a 1,000° hotspot the temperature a fraction of an inch away remains unchanged every year Western Electric produces 30 million miles of thin electrical wire for telephones the wire is pulled through tiny holes drilled in Diamond dyes until it is 1/ half the diameter of a human hair drilling a microscopic hole in a diamond used to be a tedious dayong process using steel pins coated with olive oil and diamond dust a PO laser has changed all this the dayong drilling process has been reduced to a few minutes the challenge with today's lasers is finding applications that are not simply glamorous new ways to do dull old jobs the study of laser light is a science in itself today we use its most obvious properties but the 21st century laser light may find as many uses as electricity does today the energy released by the most powerful pulse laser can be compared to Niagara Falls squeezed for a moment through a squirt gun it takes about 200 pulses for this much less powerful laser to drill a hole through a diamond die drilling a hole in a diamond is a matter of carefully focused Brute Force the unique characteristics of laser light offer far more subtle possibilities the powers of laser light can be harnessed to heal as well as destroy using this anesthetized monkey Dr H Christian Zang studies the effects of laser light on the retina of the eye this OD Dr Zang and Engineers from the Stanford Research Institute working with the cooperation of Spectra physics use a controlled blue green laser beam to create tiny lesions on the monkey's retina 3 2 1 zer one two very good this painless experiment shows how retino tissue responds to laser light it leads to a new way to treat human eye disease doctors sang uses a high-speed motion picture camera focused through a microscope to record the laser impacts three 2 1 Z 1 2 the lesion is the small white dot just below the center of the screen even as experimentation continues doctors Wang and other opthalmologists have successfully healed human eyes with laser light this woman is suffering from a disease which causes the tiny arteries in her retina to leak blood into the retinal tissue tearing it away from the wall of the eye if the leakage continues she will lose most of her vision photog graphs taken of the inside of her eye determine the position and extent of the disease a harmless dye injected into her bloodstream makes the arteries appear darker in the photographs the photographs reveal microscopic puddles of blood saturated tissue a pulse laser can stop the disease from spreading after studying the photographs Dr Zang begins treatment with the laser now M Pierce this is the laser right here and you won't feel anything while I'm treating you the only sensation you'll have will be a popping noise and I'll show that to you now let you listen to it hear that fine now I'll show you the laser light on the ceiling I'll fire it for you and you'll be able to see the red light okay the red pulses create microscopic burns on the retina the burns tack down the area around the leak so it can't spread that's 125 narrow beam right up for me look over toward me over this way Miss Pierce now hold it hold it and again [Music] excellent this postoperative Photograph shows the diseased areas sealed after treatment with the laser the pinpoint spot welds are permanent how can this beam create enough heat to do that job job behind the eye without damaging the eye itself well uh I can show you that with an experiment if you like uh you know we hear so much stuff about uh high-powered lasers and what sort of dangerous weapons they are that we had a little fun we build up a a little demonstration laser uh which gives a certain fairly high power that's a dangerous looking weapon there looks like a rocket gun once we had a weapon we had had to have a suitable Target for Bo and just about that time we went to the zoo and got a balloon for the children and uh it turned out that there was a mouse in it you know how mice get into everything however we had our more or less trusty laser and we were able to dispose of it now tell me again how that happened well you remember the balloon the mouse was dark blue and therefore it's blue because it absorbs red light and transmits the blue and so it absorbed the red beam from this laser just a very short burst of red light which furthermore was focused by the lens on the end of the laser uh and so a little hot spot appeared uh where the light was absorbed and that burned a hole in the inner balloon and started just like touching it with a lighted cigarette right but we could do it out here without going through and this really does illustrate how they can do things with light now it's not just something to look with but you can do things and do them at places where you can see but not touch as for example on the retina of the eye put your glasses the laser could create a revolution in surgery in a special laser laboratory at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Dr Leon Goldman is studying the Laser's healing power your tto relatively simple operations like the removal of unwanted tattoos are another step toward discovering the Laser's medical potential I'm putting on the glov to protect my hand color is the key to the Laser's Effectiveness the dark color of the tattoo will absorb the red light energy in the laser po and be burned the light colored surrounding skin reflects the laser light and remains unaffected the laser impact feels like a drop of hot wax to the eye the Laser Flash is 2,000 times brighter than the sun goggles protect doctor and patient from possible eye damage the laser impact in slow motion okay Bob turning up ready to fire 3 2 1 okay that was good all right let's rest here's the result of your these Burns will heal if the treatment is successful the tattoo will be gone similar results have been achieved with serious skin diseases okay Jim ready for the laser K this is the world's first laser operating room Dr Goldman uses a pulse laser suspended from the ceiling to treat skin tumors again the Laser's frequency or color is the key the amount of tissue destroyed depends upon the length of the pulse right laser surgery is still highly experimental by the 21st century a searing beam of laser light may join the scalpel as an essential surgical tool okay quartz Rod is now in position on a clear quartz rod guides the beam onto the tumor two one fire the relatively small amount of blood reveals one of the Laser's revolutionary surgical properties the heat it produces is so great that blood vessels are sealed before blood can flow a continuous laser beam has been used as a bloodless light knife which Cuts around the diseased area sealing the wound as it goes okay ready ready do ready ready three two one fire how's that feel well I think are those a little strong the actual length of the pulse is only 2,000 of a second 3 2 1 fire we have the glasses off please thank you some forms of cancer have been treated experimentally with laser light the results are far from conclusive a few special cases are encouraging four years after laser treatment there is no trace of the skin tumor that once covered this arm with present day lasers then what reaches the target is light than heat they're the same thing really it's light and when it's absorbed it's converted to heat uh we can show this rather graphically if we uh shoot a laser beam at a piece of paper that has some something typed on it uh the uh type will absorb the the black ink will absorb the light from the laser convert it to heat the white paper uh isn't defected because it doesn't absorb the light the heat can be so violent that the ink is blasted right off the paper and you have erased the letter but uh the paper is unaffected you have a demonstration of that I can do that I have a uh rather laboratory should we say model of a laser eraser uh which I can set up here a practical device of course would would have to be and would be considerably smaller well practical use of that now do you do you consider that this can be miniaturized and used actually as an a eraser yeah people uh think of lasers as being uh wonderful military devices or exotic Communications devices and think they'll have to cost a lot but this is really a mass Market you know there some I'm told 5 million electric typewriters in this country and they're manned by 5 million secretaries who can't spell and that's a big market now just to demonstrate how the laser eraser works you see I've uh typed the word eraser on here only I've misspelled it essar I won't even blame blame that on my secretary but I'm going to take out that e that's wrong there let me just aim this this thing in the nose here is just an Aiming device and we blast it and you see it's gone by golly it works it does all we need to do is miniaturize it and get it into mass production I think we've got something kind of useful what are your hopes of miniaturizing it and miniaturizing it how far oh I be built into the cover of a typewriter for example and uh aimed at the uh place where you type and the typist would just bring the letter back to where it was typed and press the erase button and it would be gone well now isn't it possible to build a lethal ray gun the ray gun just like this one we saw here well the science fiction writers or newspaper reporters are sometimes known uh like to make out something of that sort is the real purpose of all our laser work uh but I don't think so far anybody knows how to make a a laser that's big enough power and has enough sustained power to be a really useful death ray maybe someday it'll come uh but uh it isn't here yet I think this is what happens when a high-powered laser beam hits a granite slab at short range by the 21st century lasers may help dig tunnels by softening The Rock ahead of the drills the the big problem with today's high-powered lasers is their inefficiency 90% of the energy consumed by a laser like this is used to create the laser light only 10% is in the beam itself in HG Well's science fiction novel War of the Worlds martians almost conquer the Earth with a sword of light today's lasers sometimes seem to have such destructive power to do this job a mile away however requires more power than New York City uses in a year at close range a laser Cuts as best as like paper but light is not only a source of heat and destruction its energy reveals the world around us laser light can create a three-dimensional image so real you can see around it this is the Revolutionary new kind of Photography called holography at the University of Michigan eurosat prepares a hologram holography is lensless three-dimensional photography there is no camera no shutter no lens just a photographic plate some mirrors and prisms and a laser to understand how a hologram is made imagine a triangle at its apex a laser at one corner a photographic plate at the other the object to be photographed first the laser beam is split in two one beam Shines on the object to be photographed in this case models of two antique cars the second beam shines directly on the photographic plate the plate is exposed with reflected light from the cars and direct light from the second beam this is the exposed plate it is called a hologram an eerie three-dimensional replica appears when a laser shines through the Hologram an image that seems almost as real as the original holography was originally conceived by physicist Dennis Gabor in 1948 but it took the invention of the lasers coherent light 12 years later before the first hologram was possible holography is the first totally new technology to develop from laser science today its potentials are vast by the 21st century holography may be the key to full color three-dimensional Motion Pictures or even 3D television the future of holography is as exciting is the future of the laser itself Dr Charo what do you envision the uses of the laser will be by the turn of the century in some ways I I can't help thinking that laser is not very much ahead of where the airplane was around 1910 would fly if you talked of crossing the ocean with 100 passengers at the speed of sound uh people would think you're crazy and you couldn't have done it no matter what you spent had to develop the whole science of aerodynamics uh get rid of the wooden cloth and develop lightweight metals and you had to uh have real inventions like the jet engine once you got off the ground the rest of it had to come indeed the lasers that we have now have gone a long way from our early ideas and they'll go a lot farther and I think they're going to be good and bad uses but I hope that the good ones will outnumber the bad ones the laser today in a sense is a solution seeking a problem it is here but its real potential has not yet been realized its ultimate uses wait to be discovered the creation of the laser was an ancient dream come true the ray of light that heals the sword of light that destroys your enemies the laser today stands on a technological Frontier a frontier we are only beginning to explore where the Laser's fantastic light will shine is a challenge we face as we move into the 21st [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] century [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] a