[NOISE] What is "laser material"?

[Mike McNally]

Bill Frantz wrote:

> >   Moreover, a laser shot costs $3,000, compared to several
> >   million dollars for a missile. Army officials envision the
> >   Nautilus would be beamed from a truck capable of firing 50
> >   shots before requiring more laser material.
> 
> Does anyone have any idea what "more laser material" means?

It's this fluorescent goopy stuff, very sticky and tough to handle; I 
hear it smells *awful* too.  They have to use big compressors to pack
it into the laser tubes.  That's one of the reason lasers require so
much power.

Curiously, the popular novelty product "Silly String" is in fact a 
scaled-down "domestic" version of real laser technology.

______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX    * pain is inevitable  
       m5 at tivoli.com * m101 at io.com          *
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         * suffering is optional