Periods Of ATM Progress

["M.E. Germann" <CCMEG@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>]

Periods Of ATM Progress --

Val Germann
Central Missouri Astronomical Association

Richard Schwartz sent me an interesting message stating
that the periods of ATM "progress" occur when the optics/
high-tech world is in economic trouble.  Thus, ATM began
in the 1920s, in the Post World War I depression that hit
the American optical community, then based in the North-
east.  The Depression continued the ATM trend as trained
people found themselves with time on their hands.


Ditto for the period just after World War II, a very
productive time for ATM, and the period revolving around
the wind-down from Vietnam, 1969 to the mid-1970s, when
people like Tom Johnson went into the business of selling
to amateurs.  Finally, today is such a period, as high-
tech/defense is laying off people by the tens of thousands.

Makes some sense to me!

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