The man who made it real
The news of the death
of Charles H. Townes
at 99 yesterday had me travelling down memory lane about an interesting science
lesson that came from some of my early days of activism.
Charles H. Townes
according to Wikipedia is known for his work on the theory and application of
the maser for which he got the
fundamental patent and this was the precursor to the laser and for this and a greater
body of work in quantum electronics, he shared the 1964
Nobel Prize in Physics with two others, taking a 50% share.
A short history of failure
Now, my story was a
simply one. After completing my diploma in Electrical/Electronic Engineering at
the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, I was on the mandatory one-year Industrial
Attachment programme at an Information Technology services outfit known as I. T. Systems.
I had always been
involved in the Students’ Union movement from when I was at the Yaba College of
Technology where I was the class representative in the Senate with the resulting
academic exercise in futility. Smart, depressed and suffering too many things I
never had any idea to get help for, I had nothing to speak of academically, two
polytechnics and 4 years after secondary school.
It took a whole year
to find my bearings again where an uncle, shielded me from scathing criticism
and mentored me towards rebuilding my life again, this is how I eventually
ended up at the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro with my uncle as my guardian, distant
and removed from the influence of my restless parents.
Back in my mettle
This time, moving
from being one of the youngest in class all through primary, secondary and two
tertiary schools to being a grandee of sorts. I was elected the class monitor
and I played my role fully as a representative of our class. We were the
noisiest class by far and I fully represented my constituency in the cacophony
we were so good at.
I graduated in the
class of 1988 and soon we found we would not be able to return to Ilaro for the
higher diploma until the school had fulfilled some additional accreditation
criteria.
I drafted a letter to
our Head of Department and Rector asking that they work harder that getting us
back for the higher diploma. In my free time, I travelled round Lagos and
environs collecting signatures of my classmates, I probably gathered about 30.
Technology back then
I had typed the
letter on WordStar and
printed it on our office Epson dot-matrix
printer, saved to a 5.25”
floppy disk, my friend Tope Agboba working for desktop publishing firm near
the University of Lagos, took the letter and printed it out on their Hewlett Packard HP LaserJet 2
printer.
It was copies of
these rather professionally looking letters that we took to Ilaro to present to
our Rector and Head of Department (HoD). It was a matter of courtesy to first
meet the HoD and he welcomed us heartily. We stated our purpose and presented
our letter which he read intently.
Then he said, the
quality of the print of the letter was so high, asked how it was produced? We
told him, it was created with a laser printer.
A lesson I cannot forget
He then said, ‘Do you
know what laser is?’ we said we did not.
He then told us that
laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Simulation of Emissive
Radiation, with that, the full implication of what a laser is and does became
apparent. I never forgot that little conversation. We never really got what we wanted,
but most of us were dispersed around polytechnics and universities continuing
our education.
And life afterwards
I moved into desktop
publishing consultancy where laser printers were in everyday use and eventually
migrated to the United Kingdom fully ready for the market and then eventually
embarking on a post-graduate programme, the wealth of my experience standing in
for fulfilling all the prerequisites.
There are myriad
applications of lasers, too many to mention because of work done by Charles H.
Townes, the shoulders of the theorists which he stood and the applications that
came from the pioneering work he did. Somewhere along the line, this impacted
my life, in fact, I have owned a laser printer of sorts for almost 20 years.
There is no telling
what a little funny idea in a head somewhere can do to change the world.