General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

7

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

56.0 cm

Width

38.5 cm

Height

34.3 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Physics

Category

Atomic & nuclear

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Varian

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

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

"hewlett [logo] packard " printed on plate on unit front. "OHMITE/ vt/ variable transformer" printed on both dials on unit front. "CATALOGUE/ NUMBER/ VT8N/ INPUT VOLTS 120/ 50-60 CY./ OUTPUT AMPS 10" and "[Underwriters' Laboratories symbol ]/ OHMITE/ v.t./ VARIABLE TRANSFORMER/ OHMITE MFG. CO./ SKOKIE, ILL./ U.S.A." among text on plates fitted to two coils inside unit.

Missing

N/A

Finish

Dark grey enamel finish on casing.

Decoration

N/A