The Laser in America, 1950-1970

Lasers are playing an increasingly important role in ophthalmology. It is humbling, however, to realize the limited significance a scientific historian assigns to this topic. Bromberg devotes a single paragraph of 21 lines to the role of photocoagulation and laser treatment in ophthalmology! This volume is the result of the Laser History Project, which was initiated in 1982 by US Scientific Societies, the American Physical Society, the Laser and Electro-Optics Society, the Laser Institute of America, and the Optical Society of America. The project commemorated the 25th anniversary of the first operating lasers and remedied the fact that no single recent text containing a comprehensive summary of the development of the laser was available. The book is based on 80 interviews conducted with US and Soviet pioneers of the laser and includes information from numerous primary and secondary sources regarding the history of the laser. The result is a detailed