Laser pointer with no laser diode

[klugesmith]

Found this artifact during reorganization of storage boxes. It has a 1 milliwatt He-Ne laser inside.
Worked fine after years of idleness, without having to replace the two 9 volt batteries.

Unlike common laser diodes, this unit could serve as an inherently accurate wavelength reference.
Does anyone here know if laser diodes were common in laser printers and bar code scanners of the 1970's?

[davekni]

Does anyone here know if laser diodes were common in laser printers and bar code scanners of the 1970's?

I'm fairly certain that visible laser diodes came well later than 1970's.

Nice pointer!  Don't recall seeing any laser pointers until much later when diodes were available.

[Rafft]

 looks like a teardown is in order