In November 1957 in a flash of inspiration, Gould, a physicist, invented a new optical device. His notes took nine pages to write out and described what he called light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation — or LASER.
He invented two of the most important types, the optically pumped laser and the gas discharge laser. (He did it on paper; the first working laser was created in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at the Hughes Research Laboratories in California.) But when Gould took his ideas to the U.S. Patent Office, he was denied a patent. He fought back in court, and it took 30 years to fully win.
He funded the court battle by signing away 80 percent of his rights to his invention. When he was granted his most important patent in 1987, the remaining 20 percent was enough to earn him around $30 million in royalties, due to the laser’s wide use by then. “I knew from the beginning it was the most important thing I would ever get involved with,” he once said. Which was a good thing: he had his 1957 write-up notarized when he finished it, helping him to prove he was first in not only inventing the laser, but also in naming it. Gould died September 16 from an infection. He was 85.