Laser laser devices. The question of just how to assign credit for inventing the laser remains unresolved by historians. On May 16, 1960, Theodore H. Maiman operated the first functioning laser at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California, ahead of several research teams, including those of Townes, at Columbia University, Arthur Schawlow, at Bell Labs, and Gould, at the TRG (Technical Research Group) company. Maiman's functional laser used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped synthetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light, at 694 nanometers wavelength; however, the device only was capable of pulsed operation, because of its three-level pumping design scheme. Later that year,
Living Laser he was poised to take over the world due to his possession of the Serpent Crown, but is foiled by the Avengers. At one point it appeared that the Living Laser exploded in space, but in reality his body was transformed into photon form, making him an actual living laser. The Living Laser debuted in "The Avengers" #34 (Nov. 1966) as Arthur Parks, a scientist who created wrist-mounted laser units and a costume (writer Mike Conroy stated "Arthur Parks was a scientist sufficiently proficient to design laser projectors small enough to wear on his wrists, quite the achievement in 1966.")