File:Gould notebook 001.jpg

This is the first page of Gordon Gould's famous notebook, in which he coined the acronym LASER, and described the essential elements for constructing one. This notebook was the focus of a thirty-year court battle for the patent rights to the laser. Notable is the notary's stamp in the upper left corner of the page, dated November 13, 1957. This datestamp established Gould's priority as the first to conceive many of the technologies described in the book.

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Fair use rationale

The notebook pictured may be copyrighted by Gordon Gould. I believe that its use here is fair use for the articles on Gordon Gould and lasers because:

1. It is a small sample of a larger work
2. It is historically important and cannot be recreated
3. Its use in the context of an encyclopedia article should not in any way interfere with commercial use by Gould's heirs or assigns
4. The contents of the notebook are essential to the article on Gould, and a photograph of its first page adds significantly to the article. It may also be valuable in the article on lasers, as the first occurrence of the name.

This image is more important than it may appear to the casual reader. Gould's patent claims hinged critically on the fact that he wrote his ideas down in a notebook, which he dated and had notarized. The first page, in particular, captures several crucial details needed to make a functional laser, and has the first occurrence in print of the acronym LASER to describe the resulting device.--Srleffler (talk) 05:38, 11 November 2008 (UTC)