‘Laser Ray Harnessed’

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 21

‘Laser Ray Harnessed’

fN.Z. Pre«» Attn.—Copyright) SOUTHPORT (Queensland), May 26. A local electronics expert claims he has harnessed the power of the laser beam for commercial use. Initially, he has developed a navigation beacon powered by a gas laser beam. He expects to develop laser beam equipment for use in air navigation, land and sea survey work, communications, medicine, tunnelling and

many other branches of. industry. The expert is Mr Noel Walden, of Southport. Mr Walden demonstrated his navigation beacon to senior officers ef the Harbour and Marine Department. His beacon gave a beam far more brilliant and intense than the strongest searchlight Mr Walden said he obtained laser tubes from America to make his beacon. The equipment was fairly expensive but was extremely cheap to run. The beacon ran on the same power output as a smalt radio. Mr Walden said the laser beam, discovered five years ago, was one of the greatest

sctentiflc breakthroughs since the splitting of the atom. He believed the use of laser beams would be wide in industrial and research processes. “There are popular misconceptions about laser beams because of James Bond fiction,” Mr Walden said. “It is possible for a type of laser beam to puncture holes through 14in steel, but the power output is for a fraction of a second only. “It cannot be sustained to act as a kind of ray gun as the movie script writers would have us believe.” A syndicate of businessmen has formed a company to market the equipment.