[time-nuts] Re: ammonia, cesium, masers, etc.

[Tom Van Baak]

Thanks for posting that Sci-Am article, Jim.

-- Also online is the classic and very approachable book:

"From Sundials To Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time And Frequency"
by James Jespersen, Jane Fitz-Randolph (NBS Monograph 155)

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/MONO/nistmonograph155e1999.pdf

That's 1996 edition. The older 1977 edition, in color, and highly readable:

https://archive.org/details/FromSundialsToAtomicClocksUnderstandingTimeAndFrequency

-- I recommend either of the above two editions for anyone new to the 
field of precise time & frequency. For something fresher try:

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/122/jres.122.029.pdf

which is a recent review of atomic clock history at NIST, with a nice 
collection of photos ;-)

-- For deeper and more technical discussion of time & frequency topics 
these two are good:

"Introduction to time and frequency metrology", by Judah Levine
https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/1288.pdf

"Fundamentals of Time and Frequency", by Michael Lombardi
https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/1498.pdf

Many of these are mentioned in the curated reading list:

https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/general-interest-tf-publications

/tvb


On 9/19/2021 12:14 PM, Lux, Jim wrote:
> A nice article from the late 50s in Scientific American that describes 
> the various schemes for timekeeping (including zenith transit 
> detectors, etc.)
>
> https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/1568.pdf
>