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Walter Cronkite Explains the Exciting Future of Lasers to 1970's America

Just ten years after its invention, and decades before laser printers, CDs, DVDs, and pointing beams at your teacher's back existed, Walter Cronkite attempted to explain the significance of the laser.The first laser beam was fired by Theodore Maiman of...

Just ten years after its invention, and decades before laser printers, CDs, DVDs, and pointing beams at your teacher’s back existed, Walter Cronkite attempted to explain the significance of the laser.

The first laser beam was fired by Theodore Maiman of Hughes Labs on May 16th, 1960. Hughes, which would later become Raytheon, initially developed lasers for use by the military in guidance and targeting operations, a system which would prove valuable during the Vietnam War.

When this film was made, the laser’s applications were expanding “By the 21st century, picture phones in every home and personal computers may demand laser communication.” One scientist talks about a consumer laser that can be used as an eraser. You know, for typewriter typos. And then he uses a laser gun to pop a Mickey Mouse balloon inside another balloon.

The episode ends with a look at holography, which Cronkite says is possibly “the key to full color three dimensional motion pictures, or even 3D television.” He adds: “The future of holograpy is as exciting as the future of the laser itself.” Forty years later, we’re still waiting for that future.

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