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Informationen zum Autor 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. Klappentext 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 Zusammenfassung This is the story of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures--from its origins in the 1860s until today. It highlightes the role of key individuals in the development of the institution and the path from artifact standards of the metre and the kilogram to units based on the fundamental constants of physics. 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 AcadÃ(c)mie 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 ...
