Bragg's influence on progress in optical computations

Abstract

An attempt is made in this paper to indicate the impact that one small part of Sir Lawrence Bragg's gross contributions have had upon crystallography during his lifetime up to the age of eighty. The small part referred to is the growing field of optical computation. Since this paper is partly for the enlightenment of the reader as well as a salute to history, descriptions of five basic optical operations are given: I, addition; II, multiplication; III, reciprocation; IV, convolution and V, diffraction. The role of Bragg and his co-workers is woven into each description. Finally as an extrapolation, a further process is described: VI, inverse imaging.