Theodore Maiman, who built the first laser, dies at 79

Theodore Maiman, a physicist who on May 16, 1960, demonstrated the world's first laser, a device small enough to fit in his hand, died May 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 79.

The cause was systemic mastocytosis, a rare genetic disorder, said his wife, Kathleen.

Lasers, which have become ubiquitous in the years since the first one, are machines that amplify the light waves of atoms that have been stimulated to radiate, then shoot them out as narrow, intense beams of light. Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

They are used to read CDs and bar codes; guide missiles; remove ulcers; fabricate steel; precisely measure the distance from Earth to the Moon; record ultradefined images of brain tissue; entertain people in light shows; and do thousands of other things.

But at a news conference on July 7, 1960, when Maiman demonstrated the laser he had built, none of this was known, only conjectured by a few visionaries. Leading laboratories around the world had nonetheless raced to be first, with the Hughes Aircraft Company, Maiman's employer, winning.

"A laser is a solution seeking a problem," he said.

It was Maiman, who was trained in both engineering and physics, who first actually built one, at a time when other efforts were flagging.

One of his breakthroughs was the use of artificial rubies as the active medium. Others had judged that rubies did not work and were trying various gases. Maiman found errors in their calculations.

He also used pulses of light to excite atoms in the ruby. The laser thus produced only a short flash of light, rather than a continuous wave. But because so much energy was released so fast, it provided considerably more power than in past experiments.

This first laser, tiny in power compared with later versions, shone with the brilliance of a million suns. Its beam spread less in one mile, or 1.6 kilometers, than a flashlight beam spreads when directed across the room.

Alfred Chandler Jr., an economic historian who revolutionized the writing of business history, shunning the old debate about whether tycoons were good or bad, and instead arguing persuasively in almost two dozen books that it was the emergence of professional management that propelled modern capitalism, died on May 9 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Douglas Martin reported. He was 88.

Fortune Magazine last year called Chandler "America's pre-eminent business historian," saying that for a long-term perspective on the Fortune 500, the magazine's ranking of the biggest corporations, "there's really only one person to ask."

King Malietoa Tanumafili II, one of the world's longest-reigning monarchs, died on Saturday, The Associated Press reported from Apia, Samoa, citing the prime minister's office. He was 94. The cause of death was not available. He assumed the Malietoa title in 1940.