History Book: The first laser

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, November 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up, the WORLD History Book.

Today, the anniversary of a revolutionary American invention. And the death of a relatively unknown English chaplain who’s since become a household name all around the world. But first, remembering a German mathematician. Here’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: We begin today with November 15th, 16-30. German mathematician and astronomer Johann Kepler, dies at age 58.

As a devout Christian, Kepler believed that God’s creation was orderly and could be understood and explained through rigorous observation. He wrote:

KEPLER: Those laws [of nature] are within the grasp of the human mind; God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after his own image so that we could share in his own thoughts.

Today, Kepler is most remembered for his laws of planetary motion. He was convinced that the prevailing models of his day were incorrect. The Ptolemaic system had the earth as the center of the universe with the Sun, Moon and other Planets revolving around it. The other popular model based on the work of Copernicus, had the Sun at the center, and the planets revolving around it, but both models relied on perfectly circular orbits and constant velocity.

However, well known observations contradicted these explanations—the most notable being Mars. The red planet moves from west to east most nights, but every few years it seems to reverse directions for a few months before returning to its eastern path. This variation couldn’t be explained by either model.

So Kepler challenged a number of fundamental assumptions and soon figured out that the planets orbited the sun in elliptical patterns and at varying speeds— depending on their proximity to the sun. Suddenly, most of the observational oddities had viable explanations.

Kepler’s work was not immediately accepted, and he died before seeing many of his ideas fully embraced, but many later scientists credit Kepler as one of the founders of modern science. That includes Sir Isaac Newton, who used Kepler’s discoveries to explain universal gravitation.

Next, November 15th, 19-17. Oswald Chambers dies while in Egypt during World War I. His widow Gertrude, spends the rest of her life compiling his notes, lectures, and sermons into books—the most popular is the daily devotional: My Utmost for His Highest.

Here’s a clip from the official audiobook version of the classic devotional from January 1st, and it’s where the book gets its name:

AUDIO: [CLIP OF MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST]

Since its first publication in 1927, more than 13 million copies have sold. Christians all over the world rely on the ageless wisdom of Chamber’s reflections to begin or end each day. Cal Thomas, Joni Eareckson Tada and many other influential leaders credit the book as being crucial to their daily walk of faith.

In 2017, Wheaton College hosted a conference celebrating Chamber’s life. Macy Halford wrote a memoir of the devotional, and was the closing speaker.

HALFORD: When I read it, I feel something much more than relief, I feel excited, I feel ready. And that’s why My Utmost is truly a timeless book. Why at the end of each year, finally having finished it, so many of us close the cover, only to decide the next day, to flip back to the beginning and start all over again.

And finally, we end with November 14th, 1967—American physicist Theodore Maiman is granted a patent for the world's first laser.

MAIMAN: A whole bunch of reporters gathered around me and this was my first experience with the media, and a man asked me: “Dr. Maiman, are you willing to say this couldn't be used as a weapon?” and I said “no” and he said “that’s all I wanted to know.” The headline said “L.A. Man Discovers Science Fiction Death Ray” [laughter] that was the headline.

Maiman’s laser had been successfully tested 7 years earlier on May 16th, 1960. At the time, many laboratories were racing to produce the first working model.

MAIMAN: Here’s the polished cylinder, the flash lamp, etc.

Patent number 3-3-5-3-1-1-5-A explains that “laser” is short for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” The first applications included range finding for weapons, cutting diamonds, and in 1969 it even measured the exact distance of the moon to within 3 centimeters.

Once considered a novelty, hardly an industry exists today that doesn’t rely on lasers in some way. High-speed internet is the primary example. But lasers also are critical in many entertainment, manufacturing and military innovations.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book, I’m Paul Butler.

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