Seven Inventors Enter Hall Of Fame

Inventors who helped develop the laser, the computer microprocessor, the nuclear reactor and synthetic rubber have been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Arthur Schawlow, one of the men behind the laser, said he never dreamed it would be used in everything from delicate surgeries to construction and meteorology.

Also inducted were:

Marcian Hoff, Stanley Mazor and Federico Faggin for work on the microprocessor.

Leo Szilard (1898-1964), who was involved in creating the first sustained nuclear chain reaction and in early work behind the atom bomb. After World War II, he worked against nuclear war. The Rev. Julius Nieuwland (1876-1936) for neoprene, a synthetic rubber.

Edmund Germer (1901-1987) for the mercury vapor-fluorescent lamp.