[time-nuts] 50th Anniversary of the Atomic Clock

Tom Van Baak tvb at leapsecond.com
Wed Jul 27 16:15:30 EDT 2005


2005 is the 100th anniversary of Einstein's first set
of famous papers, including the one on relativity.
This has received a fair amount of press this year.

Less well known is that 2005 is also considered
the 50th anniversary of the atomic clock. Here is
a collection of papers and links if you're short of
summer reading material:


50th Anniversary of the First Accurate Cesium Atomic Clock
(Symmetricom PR)
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_print_view.cfm?this_id=432361&u=symmttm

Louis Essen - Famous for a Second
by his son, Ray Essen
http://www.btinternet.com/~time.lord/

History of Atomic Frequency Standards-
A Trip Through 20th Century Physics
by Arthur O. McCoubrey
http://www.ieee-uffc.org/fcmain.asp?page=mccoubrey

http://www.leapsecond.com/history/
Time Scales (the original 1968 Metrologia article where
Louis Essen documents the difficulties coordinating
astronomical time and atomic time)

Einstein Year 2005 - Celebrating Time
http://www.npl.co.uk/einstein_year/

Science Museum | Atomic clocks | Louis Essen
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/atomclocks/page1.asp

Frequency of Cesium in Terms of Ephemeris Time
by W. Markowitz and R. Glenn Hall, USNO
by L. Essen and J. V. L. Parry, NPL
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v1/i3/p105_1

Fifty years of atomic clocks
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/18/5/2/1

Metromnia Issue 18 - Spring 2005 - Einstein 
http://www.npl.co.uk/publications/metromnia/issue18/

The History of Frequency Control and Modern Time Keeping
compiled by John Vig
http://www.ieee-uffc.org/fcmain.asp?view=history

SPECIAL ISSUE: FIFTY YEARS OF ATOMIC TIME-KEEPING: 1955 TO 2005
Metrologia, Volume 42, Number 3, June 2005 
http://www.iop.org/EJ/news/-topic=945/
http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/0026-1394/42/3
includes:
- History of early atomic clocks, Norman Ramsey
- Essen and the National Physical Laboratory's atomic clock
- Atomic time-keeping from 1955 to the present
- Fifty years of atomic time-keeping at VNIIFTRI
- Fifty years of commercial caesium clocks, Leonard Cutler 
- and more

(some of the above links may require IEEE/UFFC or IOP registration)

/tvb
http://www.LeapSecond.com







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