The Vintage Laser Archive

[Eidetical]

The Vintage Laser Archive is a collection of old lasers and related artifacts from the laser industry, mostly from the last century. There are currently more than 500 lasers (80% unique), about 200 components (power supplies, plasma tubes, and emitters), and over 300 related artifacts. There's also more than 600 holograms (going back to 1966), and over 500 related publications in the library.

The Google Site I was using to store pics and descriptions of the collection was shut down by Google, and everything has yet to be ported over to a new site I own. Until then, the old site was saved by The Internet Archive and can be viewed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201018061048/https://sites.google.com/site/vintagelaserarchive/home

 

[paul1598419]

I got into holography in 1980 using a 632.8 nm HeNe I got out of a pioneer laser disc player. Used glass photo plates then. That was the main reason I bought all the HeNes I have now, but haven't been able to get them to work in my old house as one needs to stabilize the floor and air which if difficult to do in a second story old house. Back in those days saw some really awesome holograms. The first one I saw was back in 1973 which was a moving hologram called the Kiss II. It was in the physics building at Lamar University. That was not actually a usual hologram as it was strips of a film of a girl who blew a kiss then winked at you. It was placed into a cylinder and lit from below which made it look 3 dimensional.

 

[Eidetical]

I just added a Multiplex Company hologram (who made "The Kiss" and "Kiss II") to the archive, of Pam Brazier (the girl in "The Kiss") raising a glass of wine in a toast. Also, one of the oil-filled lenses made by Multiplex to record such holograms.

"The Kiss" by Lloyd G. Cross and Pam Brazier:


"Kiss 2":


Oil-filled cylindrical lens and other parts from the printer made by Multiplex for the Holographic Arts Company (Niles, IL) in the late '70s (donated to the archive by holographer Ed Wesly in Chicago):


Hologram portrait of Pam Brazier made by Multiplex Company as "proof of operation" of the printer before delivery to HACO:


And here's "Pam & Helen", the first hologram I saw in real life in '79 at Joliet Junior College (exhibited by Britton Zabka):

 

[paul1598419]

Yep. That's just the way it looked. If one turns the film based hologram into a cylinder it actually looks more 3 dimensional. The physics department actually asked me to change majors to physics as they didn't have enough physics majors and I got good grades. I turned them down, but have since thought I could have done other things that just engineering.