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Anyone remember the very first solid state portable laser "pointer" that they owned ? For me it was an early Radio Shack Laser pointer that I bought in the very early 1990's, say 1992 or 1993. The host was plastic, it was powered by 3 (or maybe 4) N-cells it has an indicator led on the side of the case near the push button. The beam was rather wide and it probably put out at most about 1 mW. It is dwarfed by what is available today but I was still amazed by the idea of such a small pocket sized laser and I was impressed that I could see the red dot near the top of a tall apartment building if I looked very carefully. Lots of others who I showed it to were amazed by it. Many had never seen a real laser before and also, small, hand held portable lasers were relatively unheard of among the general public in those days. I might still have it around here somewhere. Its amazing how fast solid state laser technology has evolved since then.
My very fist non-portable laser was a 0.5 mW He-Ne laser that I built back in the early 1970's.
My very fist non-portable laser was a 0.5 mW He-Ne laser that I built back in the early 1970's.
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