From Artefacts to Atoms

The Bipm and the Search for Ultimate Measurement Standards
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-530786-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 183 mm x 260 mm, Gewicht: 1064 g

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) is currently implementing the greatest change ever in the world's system of weights and measures -- it is redefining the kilogram, the final artefact standard, and reorganizing the system of international units. This book tells the inside story of what led to these changes, from the events surrounding the founding of the BIPM in 1875 -- a landmark in the history of international cooperation -- to the present. It traces not only the evolution of the science, but also the story of the key individuals and events.

The BIPM was the first international scientific laboratory. Founded in 1875 by the Metre Convention, its original tasks were to conserve the new international standards of the metre and the kilogram, to carry out calibrations for Member States and undertake research to advance measurement science. The book is based on the substantial archive of the BIPM which, from the very beginning, recounts the many discussions and arguments first as to whether and how such an institute should be created and in due course, how over the next one hundred and thirty years it should develop. Despite many national and personal rivalries, the institute actually created was admirably suited to its declared tasks. In the years and decades that followed, the scientific work of the small group of men who made up its first staff was of a very high order. One of the early Directors received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1920 for his discovery of invar. The international governing Board of the institute, the International Committee of Weights and Measures, has guided the institute from one charged with the conservation of the prototype artefacts to one now at the centre of world metrology and preparing for the redefinition of the last remaining artifact, the kilogram, in terms of a fixed value for one of the fundamental constants of physics, the Planck constant

Zielgruppe

Historians of science, members of the scientific community involved in measurement science, and general readers interested in science and scientific institutions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Quinn, Terry

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Geschichte der Mathematik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1: The origins of the Metre Convention 1851 to 1869
Why?
The need for international agreement on measurement standards
The great Exhibition of 1851 in London
The 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition and Statistical Congress
The Universal Exhibition Paris 1867; a time of political tension in Europe
The unit of length for geodesy and the original definition of the metre

The International Conferences on Geodesy, Berlin 1864 and 1867
Reactions from France: the Bureau des Longitudes
Academy of Science of Saint Petersburg

Reaction from the Académie des Sciences

Chapter 2: The creation of the International Metre Commission 1869
Creation of the Metre Commission
The members of the French Section of the Metre Commission
The first meetings of the French Section
What should be the origin of the new international metre?
The first meeting of the Metre Commission, August 1870

Chapter 3: The International Metre Commission, meetings of 1872/73
The order of things from 1869 to 1875
The Committee for Preparatory Research April 1872
The International Metre Commission September October 1872

Chapter 4: The casting of 1874 and the first steps in the fabrication of the new metric standards
Great Britain decides not to join
The problem of melting and casting platinum
Preparations for the Conservatoire casting
The casting of 250 kilograms of platinum-iridium on 13 May 1874: the alloy of the Conservatoire
Approval of the Permanent Committee
First indications that the alloy of the Conservatoire was contaminated with iron and ruthenium
To proceed regardless

Chapter 5: The Diplomatic Conference of the Metre 1875
The first sessions of the Conference
The Special Commission

First drafts of the Convention
Attempts at a compromise proposal
The opinion of the French Government
The first vote on the proposals
The 12 and 15 April sessions of the Diplomatic Conference
The signing of the Metre Convention on 20 May 1875

Chapter 6: The creation of the BIPM and the beginning of the construction of the new metric prototypes; problems with the French Section
The first meeting of the International Committee for Weights and Measures
The founding members of the International Committee
Choosing the site for the International Bureau, the Pavillon de Breteuil
Decisions on the main instruments for the new institute
Progress between April 1875 and April 1876; design for laboratory building
Difficult relations between the International Committee and the French Section
First meeting of the International Committee at the Pavillon de Breteuil; the Committee refuses the 1874 alloy
A new railway line and improved relations with the French Section

Chapter 7: 1879 to 1889, the first decade of scientific work at the International Bureau
Progress with metres and instruments
Publications, official and scientific and the library
Elections to the International Committee
Construction of the new prototypes, the metres
Construction of the new prototypes, the kilograms
More on the metres
Good relations with the French Section
The measurement of temperature, the 1887 hydrogen scale
A first unsuccessful step towards electrical standards at the BIPM

Chapter 8: New Member States and the first General Conference on Weights and Measures, 1889
New States join including Great Britain
Time to call a General Conference?
Final acts of the French Section
The first General Conference on Weights and Measures September 1889
The formal adoption of the new metric prototypes

The distribution of national prototypes
In the end, who was right about the alloy of the Conservatoire?

Chapter 9: The development of the scientific work at the BIPM, the General Conferences of 1895 and 1901
More new scientific work
Thermometry

The density of water

The length of the metre in terms of the wavelength of light
Calibrations
Staff health problems and building repairs
Members of the International Committee
The tois

Über Autor(innen)

Quinn, Terry
Terry Quinn, Retired Emeritus Director, BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures)
Terry Quinn is an experimental physicist who has worked in a number of fields of measurements science: temperature, optical radiometry, mass and fundamental constants. From 1988 to 2003 he was Director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, Sevres, France and was much involved in the organization of international metrology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Terry Quinn is an experimental physicist who has worked in a number of fields of measurements science: temperature, optical radiometry, mass and fundamental constants. From 1988 to 2003 he was Director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, Sevres, France and was much involved in the organization of international metrology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.