acronym LASER

[Larry Smith <larry.smith@SNOW.EDU>]

Can anyone verify or refute the following story?  I would think the MASER
would be a refutation.


At 1:08 PM -0400 7/14/03, Wordsmith wrote:
> --------------------------------
>
> From: J. Ramanand (ramanand_j@persistent.co.in)
> Subject: On acronyms
>
> An interesting (and perhaps apocryphal too) story about the coining of
> "LASER" (for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation")
> is that the initial description of this physical concept was to be "Light
> Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation".
>
> Why the "oscillation" was replaced by "amplification" is amply clear from
> the two possible acronyms!
>
> --------------------------------


Thanks,
Larry