Holography hit the world with a bang in 1964. This book tracks that explosion, from the near-silent burning of the slow fuse that lit it to the repercussions and fading embers that
followed. The history of holography can be visualized as a sublime fireworks show in which there have been impressive bursts intermingled with unexpected fizzles and more than a few duds.
Yet holography has simultaneously been an iceberg-like subject, hidden and mysterious. Much of its early activity gestated in laboratories engaged in classified research, both
in America and the Soviet Union; much, too, in guarded processing techniques and the secretive business practices of its major application, anti-counterfeiting; and, more recently, in Asia, where differences in language and business culture limited information flow to rumour or scientific meetings. And some aspects, such as holographic erotica, remain ever obscure. Politics, culture, commercial secrecy, and even propriety have concealed the subject, making it peculiarly vulnerable to myths and misunderstanding.