The first hologram was made in the 1940s in England. A man named Denis Gabor used to mercury arc lamp and made a hologram of the names of the scientists on a small transparency. It was made using an electron microscope.
When the laser was invented in the 1960s, holography could take off. What was needed was a stable, coherent light source and the laser fit the bill perfectly. The cost of lasers has been falling fast. In fact you can now make a hologram with a $20 laser pointer. The newest development is lasers which are powerful enough to make a hologram in only a few nanoseconds, which makes it practical to make holograms of living subjects.
The next big advance was when a man named Yuri Denisyuk (he’s Russian) figured out how to make a hologram using one laser instead of two, which allowed for easier and cheaper holograms.
In 1968, Stephan Benton developed a way of making holograms so that when you view them in white light, they don’t have a rainbow smear. The last major improvement was when an embossing technique was invented that allowed for mass produced holograms. Man produced holograms can be found:
- Pokemon cards
- Magazine covers
- Software boxes
- And many other things
History | How They Work | Links | Main Hologram Page | Multibeam Holograms | Setup | Singlebeam Holograms
