COMPLETE: Lasers, by Hal Hellman -jo

[silverquill]

Lasers, by Hal Hellman (1927 - 2016)

This project is now complete. All audio files can be downloaded from the catalog page.

https://librivox.org/lasers-by-hal-hellman/

Volunteers outside the USA: Hal Hellman died in 2016. This person's work may still be protected by copyright in countries where copyright duration is determined by the author's death date. In Europe this is 70 years; in Canada it is 50 years; and in Australia it is 70 years for authors who died after 1955.

Among great technologic developments of the twentieth century has to be that of laser light with its myriad of applications in industry, communication, medicine and many other fields. As author Hal Hellman says in conclusion in this 1968 publication, “Indeed the most exciting probability of all is that lasers undoubtedly will change our lives in ways we cannot even conceive of now.” And, so has it been, and this treatise gives insight into the early days of the research and development of lasers.

This booklet is part of the Understanding the Atom Series from the United States Atomic Energy Commission Division of Technical Information.
(Summary by Larry Wilson)

Source text (please read only from this text!): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65512

Deadline: Please submit your recording within 2 months of placing your claim. If you cannot complete the recording within this time, please post in the thread to relinquish your claim or to ask the BC for an extension. If your recording is not completed by the deadline, your claim may be reassigned at the BC's discretion.

Claiming sections: Look in the Magic Window below for the list of available sections. Post a reply in this thread asking for the section you would like to record.

New to recording? Please see our Newbie Guide to Recording for further instructions. A quick guide to our required technical settings can be found here. When you post your file, please tell the BC what name you would like to use in our catalog.

Prooflistening level: Standard
Prospective PLs, please see the Guide for Proof-listeners.

Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process unless you are the BC or PL. Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

Magic Window:

BC Admin

Genres for the project: *Non-fiction/Science

Keywords that describe the book: physics, technology, communications, coherent light, electronics

========================================

LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

Intro to recording:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.

Say:

"Section # of Lasers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org." [Optional: "Read by your name."] "Lasers, by Hal Hellman. Section Title."

End of recording:
Say:

"End of section #." [Optional, and if not stated in the intro: "Read by your name, city, date."]

If you are recording the final section of the book, add:

"End of Lasers, by Hal Hellman."

Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

NOTE: Footnotes: Please DO read footnotes, using "footnote -- end footnote."
Pictures and Diagrams: DO NOT read the actual captions. Most are repeated as text, so some can be read, but others are just a list of words that would not make sense to read. ASK if you have questions.

Filename: lasers_##_hellman_128kb.mp3 where ## is the section number. (e.g. lasers_01_hellman_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader

(If you have trouble reading the image above, please contact an admin)

MC to select: knotyouraveragejo

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into a new post in this thread along with the file duration (mm:ss). Watch this thread for prooflistening notes.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Just post in this thread.

[knotyouraveragejo]

I'm currently at my limit for projects, but since I have one ready to catalog (and few that are not moving), I can do this one for you Larry. MW will be available shortly.

Based on the author's date of death, this will be open to U.S. readers only.

[silverquill]

Thanks, Jo! Really appreciate it.
This is a short project, so let's hope it goes quickly and smoothly.

And, somehow my spreadsheet skipped a number, so there are only 10 sections -- if you can delete the extra one.
Then, I'm thinking I should sign on as DPL since there could be some tricky elements.

Thanks again for your help!

We are ready for readers.

[knotyouraveragejo]

Done. I could probably help out with the PLing as well if you need a hand.

[j0hnny]

Can I please claim section 10? Also, can you please confirm that I don’t need to read or describe figures 31 -33 and their captions, unless otherwise noted in the main text?

[silverquill]

Can I please claim section 10? Also, can you please confirm that I don’t need to read or describe figures 31 -33 and their captions, unless otherwise noted in the main text?

I've put you in for Section 10.

Do not read anything in the figures, captions, or the text version just below.
Also, ignore the footnote because it doesn't contribute anything to the text.
Please give the end of book blurb.

Thanks so much for your interest.

[Kalamareader]

Hi Larry,

This sounds absolutely fascinating. I would like to claim, for now, Sections 1, 2 and 3.

Like J0hnny, I have a couple of questions. As I scan through these sections, there are some references to "figures" really seem to need the 'figure' to explain what is happening. Three examples: "The result has come to be called the electromagnetic spectrum, which, as we see in Figure 4, encompasses a wide variety of apparently different kinds of radiation." and "The input or information wave causes the grid to act as a sort of faucet as shown in Figure 6." and "Figure 7 shows a basic and an amplitude- (or height-) modulated wave."

Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

Wayne

[silverquill]

I will certainly put you in for these, Wayne. Thanks so much.
I recognize that this booklet does depend heavily on the illustrations and diagrams, but I thought it could still stand on its own with just the text. There is really now way to give adequate treatment to them. We are limited to what text we do have printed, Just reading the captions would be confusing in most cases. (Possible exception might be the very first one on holograms). I the sentences you cite, where the references are imbedded in the text, we really have to read it just as written.

There are other instances where references can be omitted and still have the sentence intact such as:

"It now seems, however, that the turning point has been reached. We have seen laser equipment put on the market for performing delicate surgery on the eye, spot-welding tiny electronic circuits (Figure 1), and controlling machine tools with amazing accuracy (Figure 2)."

I try to approach it from the listeners perspective. What is going to make the most sense and sound the best? (Realizing, of course, that referring to figures that can't be seen will be a little confusing.)

So, do the best you can as naturally as you can, and I think we'll be alright.

Thanks for helping out!

[knotyouraveragejo]

Just putting in my two cents. Having recorded many scientific texts with tables and figures, I usually do not include any references to the figures in the text. So here is how I would read these three examples, leaving out the reference to the figure.

"The result has come to be called the electromagnetic spectrum, which encompasses a wide variety of apparently different kinds of radiation."

"The input or information wave causes the grid to act as a sort of faucet"

"The familiar expressions AM and FM, for example, stand for Amplitude Modulation and Frequency Modulation—two different ways of impressing information on the carrier wave, basic and an amplitude- (or height-) modulated wave."

[silverquill]

Jo is brilliant!

If you can go with that, Wayne, let's give it a try!

[vviera]

I'm interested in 4 and 5, please.

Thanks for the clarification on how to handle figures.

Verla

[silverquill]

I'm interested in 4 and 5, please.

Thanks for the clarification on how to handle figures.

Verla

Thank you for your interest in this project!
I've assigned Sections 4 and 5 to you.

[Kalamareader]

I will certainly put you in for these, Wayne. Thanks so much.

Larry,

Well finally here is the Intro: https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/lasers_01_hellman_128kb.mp3

Time: 7:01

Thanks,

Wayne

[Kalamareader]

Hi there again,

I found that I had a few more spare minutes tonight after doing Section 1, so here is Section 2:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/lasers_02_hellman_128kb.mp3

Time 6:11

Wayne

[silverquill]

Hi there again,

I found that I had a few more spare minutes tonight after doing Section 1, so here is Section 2:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/lasers_02_hellman_128kb.mp3

Time 6:11

Wayne

Thanks so much, Wayne!
Intro is PL OK. Very revealing about the discovery-research-application arc. I remember when the transistor changed things almost overnight. And, speculation about computers in purses? Well we carry them around in purses and pockets now!

Anyway, the second section is equally well read, except that I had put in the instructions that we were going to read the footnotes. It does interrupt the flow of the narrative, but I think most of them provide interesting little tidbits of information, like who the Angstrom and Hertz are named for. So, maybe you could add those in?

Thanks for getting us off to such a good start!