NIST: service to society

• Measuring meters
A platinum alloy bar was the measure of the meter in 1901 and scientists attempted for years to provide a redefinition. In 1960, there was a redefinition based on the wavelength of Krypton 86. In 1972, a NIST physicist made a measure of the frequency of laser light, which led to an international redefinition in 1983 — a meter is how far light travels in a certain fraction of a second.

• Hoses and hydrants
A raging fire in Baltimore in 1904 drew firefighters from as far away as New York, only to stand by helplessly as more than 1,500 buildings burned to the ground. The couplings of their hoses would not fit the hydrants, leading NIST to help develop national standards for hose couplings. During the 1920s, NIST’s tests for fire resistance in building structures led to standard procedures throughout the world.

• First signs of neon
Luminous script signs, designed by NIST in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, illustrated the first use of the noble gasses argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon for display purposes.

• Electrical units
In one of NIST’s earliest efforts, the laboratory’s electrical research and testing unit supported international redefinitions of the ampere, ohm and volt.

• Original consumer reports
Measurements for the Household, published in 1915, described the operation of common measuring appliances such as thermometers and clocks. Safety for the Household, published in 1918, demonstrated, among other things, the proper way to use a fire extinguisher.

• Tests, tests, tests
Incandescent lamps, elevator cable for the Washington Monument and inks for the Government Printing Office were among the first products tested by NIST before purchase by the government. NIST also developed testing instruments to measure currency durability, fabric stiffness and the hardness of thin materials such as dental enamel.

• Early aviation
During the years following the Wright brothers’ flight in 1903 through the United States involvement in World War I, America’s military forces sent the instruments from their several dozen aircraft to NIST for testing. NIST also produced the first quantitative data ever on power-producing qualities of fuels and the first U.S. study of the aerodynamics of flight, building a wind tunnel to study wind stresses and airspeed indicators.

• The radio wave
NIST was one of the first radio broadcasters, pioneering a market and crop report service to facilitate its research into the technical limitations of this emerging medium. This research led to standards of frequency.

• The front lines
During World War I, NIST developed a radio direction finder antenna, which it had earlier developed as an aid to navigation, that was used to pinpoint positions of enemy forces. By 1917, the military services were requesting some sort of scientific work every 20 minutes, including the manufacture of optical glass — America’s only supply, from Germany, had been cut off. NIST was the country’s only producer of optical glass during WWI and produced about half of the country’s supply during WWII.

• Air traffic control
NIST developed an aircraft radio guidance system for "blind landings," using an instrument panel to record signals from strategically placed radio transmitters, allowing pilots to track approximate positions at all times. This principle is the basis of today’s air traffic control systems worldwide. The first fully blind landing was achieved in 1931.

• Radiation standards
NIST provided physical measurement standards to assure the safety of X-rays, and helped bring about the 1931 X-ray safety code.

• The nation’s crime lab
During the early 30’s, a NIST scientist acted as a criminologist in federal investigations, including the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Since the early 1970s, NIST has developed more than a dozen law enforcement standards such as ballistic resistance of police body armor. In 1995, NIST developed a program for fingerprint screening.

• Weather forecasting
In 1936, NIST built the radiosonde, a balloon-borne instrument that increased the range and quality of weather data. Weather balloons continue in use today.

•"Smart" weapons
In 1941, NIST tested the radio proximity fuse for non-rotating projectiles, a mechanism for exploding projectiles (bombs, rockets, mortars) when directly over targets rather than on impact, often described as a leading technical advance of the wartime period. The staff also worked on Bat, the first fully automated guided missile used successfully in combat. By 1943, the entire staff was involved in war work.

• The nation’s clock
NIST has maintained the nation’s primary time standards, from the pendulum to the quartz clock to the first atomic clock, developed in 1949. After six generations of fine-tuning, the current accuracy standard is one second in 20 million years.

• The dawn of computers
In 1947, NIST began building the Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC), a major achievement as the first operational internally programmed digital computer in the United States.

• Preserving freedom
NIST helped preserve the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights in 1951, building a helium-filled museum case. A new state-of-the-art enclosure is in progress, utilizing expertise in the measurement of low level impurities in gasses.

• Outer space
The space program required new measurements of the combustion of rocket fuels and rocket thrust, plus the effects of sudden changes in temperature and pressure on rocket engines. NIST worked on similar measurements for the first supersonic flight in the late 1940s. By 1964, NIST was routinely measuring temperatures in the 20,000° C range as well as calibrating devices to measure the forces of large rockets.

• Closed captioning
In 1971, NIST developed methods for broadcasting time and frequency information on television, precursor to the closed-captioning used today.

• Smoke detectors
In 1974, NIST helped develop the first standards for smoke detectors. Extensive work in fire research also included standards on children’s sleep wear and mattresses. In 1997, NIST produced the only validated method for quantifying lethality of smoke, now routinely used in fire hazard analysis.

• Continuing challenges
NIST’s scientists are contributing to energy conservation and environmental protection, advanced encryption and robotics, computer security and semiconductor testing, radiopharmaceutical standards, and fiber optics. They continue to explore the ever-expanding frontiers of science and industry.

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