Laser-Scan Ltd Information

Laser-Scan was founded in 1969 by three academics from the Physics Department of the University of Cambridge. At the Cavendish Laboratories, Professor Otto Robert Frisch, FRCS, (an eminent physicist who created the terms 'chain reaction' and 'nuclear fission' in a paper which laid down the fundamental theory that led to the atom bomb and to nuclear reactors for power generation), led the team. The other two academics were John Rushbrooke (who remained at the Cavendish, running their research group on subatomic particles) and Graham Street (who became the first Managing Director of Laser-Scan). Working together, the academics had created and built in the Cavendish laboratory a prototype of a machine called Sweepnik that used a laser beam, moved around by mirrors, to follow lines on photographs. These photos were of bubble chamber experiments to identify the elementary particles (protons, neutrons, electrons, etc.) which are the building blocks of matter. Colleagues from other research institutes around the world saw the prototype Sweepnik at the Cavendish laboratory in action and recognising its potential asked to purchase one. Realising the potential of the scanner, the academics raised financial backing to build additional equipment and started the firm of Laser-Scan in 1969 to produce Sweepniks. The first Sweepnik was shipped to Helsinki in 1972 and was followed by sales to many other countries including France, America, Belgium, India, Japan, Greece and Egypt.