Laser pioneer Theodore Maiman, RIP

He went to work for Hughes and after some military contracts fell through, worked on the predecessor to the laser, the maser, which concentrated microwaves, not light. He made a five-pound maser that could do the work of a two-ton one. He told his bosses he wanted to make a laser, but they were wary of discouraging reports from other laboratories and said no.

They wanted him to work on computers, or “something useful,” his wife said. But he threatened to quit and build a laser in his garage.

So the Hughes executives gave him nine months, $50,000 and an assistant. The assistant was Charles Asawa, who had the idea of illuminating the ruby with a photographic flash, rather than with the movie projector lamp first used.

After Dr. Maiman succeeded, a news release predicted that doctors would use lasers to focus on a single human cell. For the rest of his life, Dr. Maiman insisted on emphasizing the laser’s healing possibilities, even as the public was riveted on the new “death ray.”