Photo: One of NIST's buildings in beautiful Boulder, Colorado
For anyone who doesn’t know, NIST stands for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST has played an important role in the history of timekeeping, not just for the United States, but even for the whole world. For this reason, OnlineClock.net thought it’d be a good idea to write a blog post on the subject of “A History of NIST and Timekeeping.”
According to their official website, NIST’s history began on March 3, 1901. Their original name was the National Bureau of Standards, according to the NIST’s publication “From NBS to NIST.” In their Centennial publication called “The Founding,” it is noted that it was chartered by Congress. The reason for this charter was due to the small amount of laboratories focusing on physical science at that time. In addition to this, the few that did exist were arbitrary in their standards and each followed their own individual or regional standards. This warranted the need for a national standard. During the past century, NIST played an important role in technology, science and time. They are credited with advancements in DNA diagnostics, error-correcting software for machine tools, smoke detectors, x-ray technology, pollution control technology, dental drills and atomic clocks. The highly-skilled and carefully-selected professionals who work for NIST study, research and assist in new developments in these areas of science and technology. Since their work is so expansive, we’ll start with explaining their history with timekeeping.
According to their site, NIST’s work with studying and researching time and frequency dates back to 1904. During this year, they bought a stable pendulum clock from a German company called Clemens Riefler. The new pendulum clock was commonly known as the Riefler Clock. Some of NIST’s original objectives during their first years with timekeeping and frequency were to test various timekeeping accessories and watches. Their work in this area was with the Weights and Measures Section in Washington. The Riefler Clock was the main time interval standard until 1929. After this, the Shortt Clock took its place. Fabricated in London and developed at the Edinburgh Observatory, the Shortt Clock was a double-pendulum timepiece. Electronic method-based standards took the place of the pendulum mechanical standard only a few years after the Shortt Clock replaced the Riefler Clock.
The Riefler Clock Escapement
As radio broadcasting took off, there was a problem that many commercial radio broadcasters faced, which was keeping their broadcast sessions “on frequency.” This was because they didn’t have adequate standards for frequency. According to a publication about NIST’s history from their official site, this is how their involvement in electronic time and frequency came into the picture. The need for frequency standards resulted in the development of inductance-capacitance wave-meters, followed later by Quartz Crystal Frequency Standards. Radio broadcasts of frequency signals started in 1923, meeting the increased demand of broadcasters. These radio broadcasts first took place in various locations on the East Coast.
One of the most revolutionary points in regards to timekeeping for NIST was in 1949. This was the year they developed the atomic clock. We won’t delve into this subject deeply, as OnlineClock.net has already published a blog post on how this extremely precise timekeeping device works. 1950 was the year that NIST’s mission was restarted and expanded. During this process, Congress validated the importance of broadcasting radio signals of standard frequency. In their article titled “NIST’s History Measuring Time & Frequency,” it is noted that the organizational structure of their program changed many times. The radio work of NIST was moved in 1954 to the Boulder Laboratories in Colorado. Growth continued over the next decade, prompting the Time & Frequency Division‘s formation in 1967. Just a year prior to that, the move of broadcasting from the East Coast to Colorado was completed.
Atomic frequency standard changes were discovered as a result of the atomic clock. This led to a change in 1967 of an international definition change of the second. One second was defined as the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation in correspondence with the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the cesium-133 atom’s ground state. The following five decades saw rapid growth from this discovery. The end result was today’s time standard, known as NIST-F1. For those who don’t know what this time standard indicates, it is so precise that is has an accuracy of less than one second every 30 million years! (Wow.)
When it comes to measuring Time, satellites are our friends!
Another interesting contribution noted in NIST’s history is their development of the first successful high-accuracy time transferring technique with satellites in the early 1980s. Named the GPS Common-View Time Transfer, it is now the main method for coordinating time between the world’s timekeeping laboratories. If you’ve ever heard the famous phrase “the following presentation has been closed captioned for the hearing impaired” on television, you have NIST to thank partially for that. Originally started by the NBS, the work entailed dissemination of time through television broadcasts. Their contributions to this development earned them an Emmy award by the television broadcasting industry in 1980. NIST continues their dedication to work and research in timekeeping today. Their current radio signals are WWV and WWVB north of Fort Collins, Colorado and WWVH from the island called Kauai in Hawaii. They also have two separate services called Internet Time Service and Automated Computer Time Service, or ACTS. Both benefit you, as they control the clocks on your computer and various other electronic devices with automated time.
Now that we’ve covered NIST’s time-related history, we’ll give you a brief overview of their other highlighted accomplishments through the years in other areas of technology and science, based on a collaboration of their Centennial articles from their official website. During the Industrial Age, they worked hard to make electrical measures more precise. NIST also studied the corrosion and effects on underground gas mains and pipes, which was caused by electricity being fed to trolleys. They were able to make valuable contributions that led to solving this nationwide problem. Evaluation of product quality became an important focus during this time period. In addition to the radio developments in the 1920s, NIST also worked hard to develop building, zoning and plumbing codes during this time period. Another valuable contribution they made was reformulating the process of making sugar, discovering a low-cost way to manufacture dextrose instead of expensive cane or beet sugar.
NIST’s studies during the Great Depression focused on light and radiation in great part. They also recognized the accomplishment of one of their scientists who separated the heavy hydrogen isotope, which was discovered by another scientist who won a Nobel Prize for it. Little did they know that the element would later be useful in nuclear weapons – they were more concerned about its usefulness in neon signs at the time. As you can imagine, their importance was great during World War II. NIST director Lyman Briggs was consulted by President Roosevelt on various scientific matters. In 1940, after being commissioned to look further into uranium fission, Briggs and his committee received funds for research that would lead to the making of the atomic bomb. Their work was secretive enough they had the power to block off streets to protect their research and development. By 1943, the entire staff was working on war projects. They also worked on printing and making small electronic components.
Is that an underwater Velocimeter, or are you just happy to see me?
The postwar years saw the development of a velocimeter with the help of the Navy, which measured the speed of sound underwater. In 1947, NIST began building computers for government agencies. In addition to this, they developed a mathematical algorithm that would later be named one of the top ten. The dawning of the 1960s brought about the Space Age and NIST’s temperature measurement projects. ASCII was developed in 1968. After 1969, all computers used by the government had to be ASCII-compatible. In the 1970s, NIST’s studies focused on the public. They developed metric conversions, publishing the book “A Metric America” (Well, I guess that never happened, huh?).
One of the most notable contributions in the 1980s was NIST’s developments with fingerprinting and biotechnology. Energy, environmental quality, biotechnology and materials testing are areas that NIST focused on in the 1990s. In addition to this, they contributed study and research to help maintain national security and win the Gulf War.
So there you have it, Clock Fans, NIST: an organization responsible for a lot of what we understand to be our modern lifestyle, as it relates to timekeeping, and a whole lot of other stuff, too!
A History of NIST and Timekeeping is a post from: Alarm Clock Blog, the official blog of the original Online Alarm Clock.
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