General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

3

Total Parts

9

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

GLASS, METAL AND SYNTHETIC CONSTRUCTION THROUGHOUT.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

47.0 cm

Width

15.0 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Physics

Category

Atomic & nuclear

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

NRC

Country

Canada

State/Province

Manitoba

City

Winnipeg

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

British Columbia

Period

THIS MASER USED C. 1968 TO 1992. WAS OPERATIONAL IN 1993/94.

Canada

MASER WAS KEY ELEMENT IN PERMITTING NRC RADIO ASTRONOMERS TO BECOME THE FIRST IN THE WORLD TO CREATE A LONG BASELINE INTERFEROMETER (LBI) NOT PHYSICALLY CONNECTED BY WIRES. THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM, CONSISTING OF NRC AND CANADIAN UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS, WON THE RUMFORD PREMIUM FOR THIS ACHIEVEMENT IN 1972. (REF. 1)

Function

TO MEASURE TIME WITH THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE DEGREE OF ACCURACY, AND TO GENERATE A VERY PRECISE TIME FREQUENCY.

Technical

ATOMIC HYDROGEN MASER PROVIDES HIGHEST POSSIBLE STABILITY OF TIME MEASUREMENT OVER PERIODS OF SEVERAL HOURS. THIS EXAMPLE WAS STABLE TO 1 PART IN 10(13)-10(14). IT'S SIGNALS WERE SYNCHRONIZED TO PERMIT COMBINING THE INCOMING RADIO DATA FROM ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS SUCH AS QUASARS, ACTIVE RADIO GALAXIES FROM TWO OR MORE VERY DISTANT RADIO TELESCOPE ANTENNAS, SUCH AS THOSE OF THE LBI.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Stored in sheet metal box, probably made by NRC. (.3 PT) "CAUTION! HYDROGEN MASER SOURCE OSCILLATOR GLASSWARE" and "SOURCE OSCILLATOR ELECTRONICS" handwritten in marker on box. Business cards for Joseph R. Fletcher, Electronics Technologist- NRC taped to box lid.

Missing

N/A

Finish

Metal, glass and synthetic component parts. Individual transistors, etc. bear mfr's markings.

Decoration

N/A