ABSTRACT
Clive Ireland Many of today’s laser applications are considered novel or recent but this is not the case. Back in the late 1950s, in parallel with research to achieve laser operation, applications of the technology were also being considered. By the time the laser was first operated in 1960, systems based on focused electron-beam sources were in use for precision welding and machining applications [1, 2] and it was a simple step to speculate on the merits of substituting a laser beam as the source [3, 4]. By 1962, an article in a US trade magazine proclaimed: ‘Drilling holes through steel with light is a cinch’; and went on to summarize the (then) potential future applications of lasers [5]. The article included the following table.
