Vintage Meters Still Working

[Eidetical]

A few years ago I was repairing a mid-'80s pulsed ruby laser and had the opportunity to see if one of my oldest meters was still working. The TRG model 113 with a model 107 "ballistic thermopile" detector is apparently as good as when new in 1966, according to the Coherent Ultima 2 from 2000 (but calibrated by them in '04). The ruby laser's power supply makes a loud noise when the big capacitors discharge, sounding like a mule kicking the cabinet. The pulse of light makes a similarly loud noise when it slams into the brass cone inside the detector. It's like whackin' a large steel lid with a big wooden spoon.

Unfortunately, I accidentally left the Coherent quadrant detector in the beam path after turning on the Q-switch, and got a nice mode pattern on its face. I wonder if there is any chance of repair.

 

[Eidetical]

A really nice meter to have for holographers is a scanning fabry perot interferometer, to know if you're coherent or not (sometimes hard to tell, and not just the laser). This one from Coherent is from the mid-'90s and still works well, allowing the tuning of a 100mW OEM laser from the same time. Mostly needed with ion lasers, there may be one available if you contact an old holographer and offer a 12-pack of tall cans for it.

 

[Unown (WILD)]

Sounds like a good deal