Atomic Clock

A film produced by the NPL Film Unit in the 1950s explaining the principles behind the first accurate atomic clock, designed by Louis Essen and built at the National Physical Laboratory in 1955.
We are very grateful to Ray Essen, Louis Essen's son-in-law, for unearthing this piece of NPL's history.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Miralize]

i should be studying for my exams... none of which are relevant to this video

[AdmiralGilgamesh]

Radical accent!

[eyreland]

You need to use the FFmpeg package to remove the noise from your working digital copy. Other than that the print is in OK shape for its age.

[Fizzwut]

Reminds me of the Dharma Initiative videos from Lost.

[hobbified]

They're not measuring the frequency of oscillation per se. They *know* the frequency of oscillation, it's unchanging (at least in an ideal world, at absolute zero, with no magnetic field...) if your measurement of the frequency is wrong it's not because the oscillation has changed, it's because the period you're measuring over isn't actually one second.

[Richard Freeberg]

Handcrafted. Love it. Sweat soldiered, simple tools and adapted parts. Like a giant sculpture!

[ERSorensen]

I like that throughout the entire length of the film they neglect to explain how measuring the frequency of oscillation can actually be converted into measuring lengths of time.