How much of 20th Century physics has been bodied forth in an electronic device the size of a New York City cockroach (54 mm or 2 3/16th inches)? Actually quite a bit. I have in hand a Mini Laser Distance Meter.
It must be some offshoot of Moore's Law that applies to microelectronics (which I wrote about here) that my lilliputian device, which builds on more than 100 years of advanced physics, was bought for the modest sum of $18.28, free shipping from manufacture in Guangdong Province, China.
The possibility of a laser (light amplified stimulated electron radiation) was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1907. Einstein's prediction spurred on physicists until the definitive work of American Charles H. Townes and Russians Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov made lasers and related masers (microwave-based) possible. All three shared the Nobel Prize in physics for 1964.
And why do I have this device? Of course, to measure distance. A bit of explanation is in order. I have an old camera, a 1943 Agfa B2 Speedex medium-format that uses real film. To operate this analog camera, you push a button and the lens mechanism pops out from the camera body, surrounded by a bellows housing. Thus, the camera is known as a "folder."
And while you can use a viewfinder to frame your shot, you can't, in any way, focus the shot you are about to take. Instead, you set the distance from camera to subject on a dial that circles the lens.
In the past, pre-laser, I had to step off the distance with long strides, counting each step as three feet. It was reasonably accurate, but I was never going to be good enough to eyeball the distance, like I once did while playing golf. Viz., then I was going over the same approaches to the greens time after time.
No, I'd have my camera in hand and had to do those long strides. I once was taking a picture of a farm silo in the Willamette Valley when a farmer came out and asked what I was doing. I tried explaining the folder camera, but I'm unsure if my old, odd camera made sense to him. He seemed satisfied I wasn't up to no good on his property.
My cockroach-sized laser meter changes everything. Now I merely push a button, turn on the red laser beam, and push the same button a second time and there's my reading. Choice of feet, meters, or inches. I can measure distances up to 98 feet with an accuracy of plus or minus 0.08 inches. For an accuracy of 99.99+ percent at maximum range.
That's what I call laser-sharp accuracy!
Image credit: author photo
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
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