Australian Holographics was started with the specific objective to produce high quality large format holograms. After two years of research and development the company began commercial operations in 1991.

Situated on 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of rural farm land 25 miles (40.2 km) from Adelaide, the lab's facilities included a 5 x 6 metre vibration isolation table in a studio with air-lock loading doors, large enough to drive a car onto the main table. The main CW (continuous wave) laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

 was a 6W argon laser built by Coherent Scientific. The company also used a 3 joule ruby pulse laser, built in collaboration with Professor Jesper Munch of the School of Chemistry and Physics at Adelaide University.

The company mainly specialized in the production of the large format white-light-viewable Rainbow hologram

Rainbow hologram

The rainbow or Benton hologram is a type of hologram invented in 1968 by Dr. Stephen A. Benton at Polaroid Corporation . Rainbow holograms are designed to be viewed under white light illumination, rather than laser light which was required before this...

, a type of holography originally invented in 1968 by Dr. Stephen Benton

Stephen Benton

Stephen A. Benton was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and the inventor of the rainbow hologram and a pioneer in medical imaging and fine arts holography.- Biography :...

 of MIT. IN fact, while all Rainbow Holograms are 'white-light-viewable' the most commonly known application of the technique has been applied to reflectve substrates like PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) and PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate) and used widely on credit cards and as anti-counterfeiting applications on labeling of products. Australian Holographics applied the principle for transmission rather than reflective viewing conditions. In 1992, Australian Holographics produced a 2 x 1 metre rainbow transmission hologram of a Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

 Station Wagon car, which was shown at Holographics International '92 conference in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Creating a Large Format Studio

The AH project necessitated building a large climate controlled studio incorporating a 6 x 5 metre optical table weighing around 25 tons. The system had to allow for both the creation of large-depth scenes for mastering, in addition to affording the space required for the effective production of ultra-large format rainbow transmission and reflection hologram copies. A heavy sand-filled cavity steel construction was used for the table. The suspension system was constructed around nine Firestone air bags connected to a standard pneumatic set-up with needle-valves, ballast tank and compressor. Overhead towers were designed to carry large transfer mirrors at heights of over three metres above the table. These towers were constructed from hollow steel tubes filled with sand. Over the years, lifting systems for the large glass filmholders evolved from hand operated, to mechanical and finally to pneumatic.

Imaging Techniques in Large Format Continuous Wave Holography

The requirement for stability in the CW (continuous wave) mastering process, has a surprisingly beneficial aspect, in that it allows for the utilization of unstable curtained areas to effectively render invisible unwanted elements in the field of vision. This trick is still unique to CW and is sorely missed during Pulse Holography mastering, where the problem is that often too many things are visible and there are limited methods available to conceal them. Thus if a large object is required to apparently float unsupported in space, CW mastering, rather than Pulsed, provides the means to easily achieve this illusion. Many important elements involved in producing high quality large format holograms rest not so much with the traditional concerns of holography but rather with aesthetic concerns that relate to table layout, and lighting techniques that endeavour to feature the subject without visual distractions and to control glare and reflections that lead to non-linear noise.

The specifications of the vertical film alignment in the holographic camera

During the holographic mastering process for large format Rainbow Transmission Holograms the strip of holographic film that becomes the H1 hologram master must be positioned in front of the subject (3D model) in such a way that it is bathed in diffused laser light, but importantly, must be held rigidly and firmly flat against a sheet of glass. Typically, elaborate hydraulic or vacuum systems have been employed to compress holographic film during the exposure process. However this function was achieved at Australian Holographics by the construction of what was referred to as 'the camera'. In fact the camera was a very long and narrow glass box, approximately 2.2 metres long, about 12 cm high and about 6 cm deep. Inside this 'camera' was a loose piece of glass slightly shorter than the length of the camera, but around the same height.

The surprising utility of: Johnson's Baby Oil

The long strip of holographic film was placed between the loose glass sheet and the front of the camera, and the entire camera box was then almost filled with Johnson's Baby Oil. This unusual element to the high tech array of equipment and processes came about after the exhaustive testing of the refractive index of countless varieties of commercially available oils, and to the surprise of the holographers concerned, none could surpass the efficacy of this product. The function of the oil inside the camera was to act as an agent to cause the camera to flatten the film between the two glass surfaces. As the oil slowly seeped out between the film's surface and the two glass sheets the natural viscosity of the oil maintained an ultra-thin but cohesive layer that had the effect of gradually pulling the two glass sheets together with a level of force sufficient to flatten the film to within the tolerance level that allowed a consistent interference pattern to be recorded on the H1 master.

History

Australian Holographics Pty Ltd. was incorporated in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia in 1989 by Dr. David Brotherton Ratcliffe. Dr. Ratcliffe was at the time a Research Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 in Physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 in the School of Physical Sciences, at Flinders University

Flinders University

Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...

. The senior holographers working with Dr. Ratcliffe were initially Mr. Geoffrey Fox, and subsequently Mark Trinne.

In 1992, David Ratcliffe formed GEOLA Labs in Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 to concentrate on the manufacture of pulsed Neodymium YLF lasers. In May 1992, Mr. Simon Edhouse, joined Australian Holographics as Marketing Manager, becoming General Manager later that year. The company then focused its attention on the international science museum community, selling large holograms to museums in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. In 1993, Australian Holographics was commissioned by the Sunkung Corporation of South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 to produce an exhibition of ten large format holograms for Expo '93.

In October 1993, David Ratcliffe relocated to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and handed operational control of the day-to-day running of the Adelaide studios to Simon Edhouse, who managed the marketing and operational aspects of production until the closure of the Australian facility in 1998.

In 1994, Australian Holographics produced a series of holographic billboards for the Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

an military to promote the 'NS Men' (National Service Men) campaign. The holograms were of the rainbow transmission variety, enclosed in a compact viewing enclosure which housed a mirror to extend the light path for optimal viewing conditions. Also in 1994, Multi Cellular Media Pty. Ltd. trading as Australian Holographics, signed a joint venture agreement with the South Australian Museum

South Australian Museum

The South Australian Museum is a museum in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultural precinct of the Adelaide Parklands.-History:...

, giving the company access to the Museum's vast collection of exhibits.

A Holographic Diorama of Extinct Thylacines

One of the first projects undertaken by the new venture was the production of a 1.6 x 1.1 metre rainbow transmission hologram of a family of thylacine

Thylacine

The thylacine or ,also ;binomial name: Thylacinus cynocephalus, Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf...

s. The holographic thylacines, shown standing on a rocky outcrop in a field of dry grass, portrays the now extinct Thylacines as a family group, with the small thylacine pup protruding 50 cm in front of the holographic image-plane.



The company also produced a 1.5 x 1.1 metre hologram of a Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...

skull from the S.A. Museum's collection.

In 1995, a large series of holograms were produced of satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

s and space vehicles. The most notable of these holograms was the giant 2.1 x 1.1 metre rainbow transmission hologram of the MIR

Mir

Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

 Space Station

Space station

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

. This hologram showed a 2 x 3 metre scale model of MIR apparently floating high above the Earth. The model of the Earth used in this hologram was custom made by Adelaide Artist John Haratsis. It measured 4 x 5 x .6 metres resembling a thin slice of a much larger sphere.



In 1996, a 'Great White Shark

Great white shark

The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...

' hologram was produced by the company from a 4.5 metre model made in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

by David Joffe. The resulting 1.5 x 1.1 metre rainbow transmission hologram would become the most popular of all the Australian Holographics stock images, being sold around the world to museums, private collections and tourist venues.