Boulder
Blast from the Past:
Tales of the
(A series of articles
reprinted from the
Braudaway Dedication Day Story
Retired staffer
David W. Braudaway, PhD, LFIEEE, NCSLI Wildhack Award recipient, was on stage
for the dedication of the Boulder Labs and had a part in equipping the new
facility and in arranging sound for the dedication. Below are excerpts from his
reminiscences of Dedication Day, 1954.
There was no
practical way to do remote television at the time of the dedication, BUT the
major networks and Channel 2 from
Braudaway did the
speaking tests and announcements before the ceremony in 1954; during the
ceremony the sound was at comfortable level but nobody in the audience had any
trouble hearing. Indeed, there was a report that the ceremony was heard faintly
on
It must be noted
that no sound recordings were made that day, however. The manufacturer of those
new, latest-design, portable recorders had built a flaw into the microphone's
mixer circuit and all signals were shorted out!
Afterwards, the
TV broadcast people re-inspected the contractor's rusty sound equipment and
expressed admiration; the reputation of the Bureau's sound provider had risen from
flunky to expert. The sound system did honor to the speeches and especially the
formal dedication of the NBS site by President Eisenhower.
But why did the
contractor make such a low bid? Our sound expert had been retired for a good
number of years; his business had been supplying sound for the gubernatorial
races in
Read the entire
story: BraudawayReminiscences.htm
Antarctic Disappearance
Carl R. Disch, ionospheric
physicist for the National Bureau of Standards Boulder Labs, disappeared on
Disch was
returning to the main station after a visit to the radio-noise installation
when he apparently missed a handline. The temperature at the time was -45 F,
with strong winds. In spite of the severe weather conditions the station
personnel mounted a lengthy and thorough search for Carl. Not a trace was ever
found.
"In all
there were 29 (19 military and 8 scientists) and one dog who wintered over.
Unfortunately, we lost a scientist by the name of Carl Disch and our Husky dog
during the winter months. Carl wandered away from the "life line"
that connected the weather tower to the main tunnel on May 8th and Sastrugis "Gus"
disappeared August 18. Far as I know they've not been found. We tried in vain
to find Carl but at the time the wind was raging with minus 45 temperature. All
we could do was tie ropes around our waists, spread out on both sides of the
D-8 cat and walk along hoping to stumble over him. Was like finding a needle in
a haystack blindfolded. " --Jim Bartley, a former winter-over resident of
Byrd Station. He spent 13 months there in 1964 and 1965)
A memorial
service for Carl Disch was held in his hometown of
When
Imagine the
effect on sleepy little
As former NBS
scientist C. McKay Allred once remembered, a local fellow who worked at the
Court House was dismayed to see NBS employees show up as a group to get
See You on the Radio: How Time got on the Air
The radio station
known today as WWVB began life as radio station KK2XEI in July 1956. The
transmitter was located in
In 1962, NBS
began constructing a new transmitter site north of
A time code was
added to WWVB on
The radiated
power of WWVB was increased to its current level of 50 kW in 1999. This power
increase made the coverage area much larger, and resulted in the design of many
new low-cost radio clocks that “set themselves” using the WWVB signal.
International Geophysical Year
From
The International
Geophysical Year (IGY), as it was called, was modeled on the International
Polar Years of 1882-1883 and 1932-1933, and was intended to allow scientists
from around the world to take part in a series of coordinated observations of
various geophysical phenomena. Although representatives of 46 countries
originally agreed to participate in the IGY, by the close of the activity, 67
countries had become involved.
NOAA's
Two NBS
scientists were influential in guiding American participation in the IGY.
Physicist Alan H. Shapley of NBS was appointed Vice-Chairman, and Hugh Odishaw,
also of the Bureau, was appointed Executive Secretary (later, Executive
Director).
Nobel Names on Campus
Did you ever
notice the names of the streets on the DOC
In a memorandum
dated
Two men, Walter
H. Brattain and Charles Townes, associated with NBS in the past, had also been
awarded Nobel Prizes in physics. Townes was a consultant to NBS on the atomic
clock program and Brattain was in the former Radio Section during the period
1928-1929. In his 1986 history, "Achievement in Radio," Wilbert
Snyder suggested that Brattain and Townes would be fitting selections for
naming new roads on the Boulder campus.
Little did he know that we'd soon have our very own local prize winners
to honor: Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman!
Snyder's book is
available in the library, and more information on the Nobel Prizes may be found
at http://www.nobel.se/physics/index.html
NOAA Measures Boulder’s Big Winds
If you've
experienced a Boulder winter you know first hand that we have BIG winds. Thanks
to NOAA's Aeronomy Lab scientists we can prove our windy claim to fame to the
rest of the world. And we can have advanced warning when those mighty winds are
going to blow.
In 1975, the Aeronomy
Lab developed the first Doppler radar wind profiler, located about seven miles
west of Boulder, near the town of Sunset in the front range, for the
measurement of the winds up to 10 kilometers. The Sunset radar was the first
designed specifically for tropospheric wind profiling. It was a pioneering step
in wind-profiling technology that later involved other Boulder labs (ETL, FSL)
and resulted in improvements to daily weather forecasts and warnings.
Our Common Ancestor
Did you know that
all the agencies of the Boulder Labs have a common ancestor? They all can trace
their roots back to the old "Bureau of Standards," and the Bureau's
radio laboratory. Here is how the ITS branch of the family found its way into
being.
The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, or ITS, began in the 1940s as
part of the National Bureau of Standards. At that time, it was called the
Interservice Radio Propagation Laboratory, which later became the Central Radio
Propagation Laboratory (CRPL). If it weren't for CRPL and the special physical
environment it needed, we all might be working in Maryland right now; you see,
CRPL was the lab that the Boulder site was obtained for.
In 1965, CRPL was transferred from NBS to join the United States Weather Bureau
and the Coast and Geodetic Survey in a new scientific agency of DOC: the
Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). At that time, CRPL was
renamed the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and Aeronomy (ITSA). In
1967, the telecommunications function of ITSA was transferred into the newly
formed Office of Telecommunications (OT) within the Department of Commerce.
Finally, under the President's Reorganization Act #1 of 1977, OT and the Office
of Telecommunications Policy merged to form the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA). Since that time, ITS has performed
telecommunications research and provided technical engineering support to NTIA
and to other Federal agencies on a reimbursable basis.
More recently, ITS has expanded its historical role by conducting cooperative
research and development with U.S. industry and academia under the provisions
of the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986.
The Fourth of July and the Boulder Labs
The Fourth of
July has a surprising role in our history. Who could have known that a simple
holiday picnic on Flagstaff would hold the key to the Boulder Labs' future in
Boulder?
In June of 1949
the director of NBS, Dr. Edward U. Condon, attended the Echo Lake Cosmic Ray
Symposium at Mount Evans. Present there was Dr. Walter Orr Roberts,
Superintendent of the High Altitude Observatory of the University of Colorado,
who was convinced that Boulder was the ideal location for the new Central Radio
Propagation Laboratory. He invited Dr. Condon to visit Boulder that weekend and
take a tour of the CU campus. Condon agreed to the visit and returned with
several members of the CRPL staff to enjoy the Fourth of July holiday in
Boulder.
Roberts took his
guests up Flagstaff Mountain for a spectacular picnic. After the heat and
humidity they were used to in Washington, D.C., the committee soaked up the
beauty and breezes of Boulder. They knew they'd found the perfect site for the
new radio propagation labs! All that remained were selection formalities and
the donation of land to seal the deal.
The Big Move to
By the spring of
1954, an initial wave of 30 NBS staff members had made the move to Boulder from
Washington, D.C. A part of the
tropospheric group, Arthur J. Estin had been the first to transfer in April of
1950, about four months after Boulder was selected as the Labs' future
home. He was stationed at Cheyenne
Mountain outside Colorado Springs until a temporary facility was obtained in
Boulder.
From April until
late summer, a total of 52 large moving vans moved 512 metric tons of equipment
from Washington to Boulder. Packing some of the delicate and unwieldy
laboratory equipment taxed the skill of the movers. Taking no chances, Bureau
personnel hand carried the four quartz crystals of the National Primary
Frequency and Time Standard to ensure their safety.
1954 was the year
of the "long, hot summer." All-time heat records were broken that
summer as the NBS migration went into full swing. Travel by car was the norm,
but air-conditioning was not. The 1,800 mile trip was an ordeal for all who
drove through the July heat wave of up to 118°F on the route across the
mid-west, and 104°F in Boulder. The new NBS residents found Boulder a hot and
parched contrast to the lush green of the East coast.
A resettlement
committee eased the transition for NBS staff by assembling a library of
information on Boulder and Boulder real estate. They provided information on
Federal moving regulations and on moving companies, temporary housing, schools,
and a host of other things associated with moving a large group of workers and
their families. Additionally, a group of Boulder citizens made a "Good
Neighbor Trip" to Washington early on to meet with many of the staff
members who were being assigned to the Boulder facility.
In late 1955, the
Boulder Chamber of Commerce surveyed NBS employees on how they liked Boulder.
Out of 75 replies, 41 were favorable, 21 neutral, and 13 unfavorable.
Apparently, Boulder's beauty and climate had won over most of the NBS staff.
Boulder Citizens Give Us our Site
When the 81st
Congress allocated $4,475,000 for the construction of the radio laboratory, no
appropriations were slated for the purchase of property. At the time,
Charlottesville, Virginia, and Palo Alto, California, were under serious
consideration for the site of the new laboratory because they had viable
locations, and land available. The Boulder Chamber of Commerce made a move to
enter the competition. Led by its President, Vergyl H. Reynolds, and Junior Past
President, John F. Allardice, the Chamber created the Standards Committee on
February 27, 1950, in order to raise funds to purchase land. Two tracts of land
totaling 217 acres were available south of town that could be obtained for
approximately $70,000. The land was situated west of Marshall Road (now South
Broadway) and south of Green Mountain Cemetery.
On March 2, James
J. Yeager, a Boulder businessman, accepted chairmanship of the campaign. By
early April, Yeager had a large group of Boulder citizens organized for the
Boulder Chamber of Commerce–U.S. Bureau of Standards Radio Laboratory Fund
Campaign. The campaign officially kicked off at 7:30 a.m. on April 1 at a
breakfast addressed by Elmore Peterson, Dean of the Business School. A short
two weeks later, over $90,000 was collected and the campaign was over. The
largest contribution came from the Boulder Elks Lodge No.566 totaling $10,000.
All contributions of $100 or more were recognized by public announcement and
later by inscription on a metal plaque that was placed in the lobby
entrance. The final negotiated price for
the land was $63,000 with the excess money used to purchase land east of town
on Arapaho Road. (This tract of land was known as the Boulder Industrial Park
and was later occupied by the Ball Brothers Research Corporation.) On June 13,
1950, the deed to the land was transferred by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce
to the United States of America.
If you'd like to
see the donor plaque and a photo of the deed transfer ceremony they are outside
the museum in 1-1201.
Top-knots and Hydrogen
Did you ever
wonder about those funny "top-knots" on Building Three? They are
clues to an interesting part of our past:
On August 29,
1949 the Soviet Union detonated that country's first atomic bomb. The United
States' response to this development was to accelerate research for the
production of the super bomb, or hydrogen bomb. Initial designs called for
copious amounts of liquefied hydrogen. No large liquifier facilities existed
this side of the Mississippi, and none could supply the amounts required.
Therefore, on March 28, 1951 it was announced that a large hydrogen liquefying
plant would be constructed at the Boulder site. Construction was completed in a
little over a year, an incredible feat of engineering.
Building Three,
the new Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, was capable of producing 350 liters
of liquid hydrogen an hour, and supplied the liquid used in the world's first
hydrogen bomb. This bomb, code named Mike, was exploded on November 1, 1952, at
Elugelab Island in the South Pacific. It was the first hydrogen thermonuclear
device and was considered highly successful, producing 10.4 megatons of TNT
equivalent. [See photo at http://www.zvis.com/nuclear/dimg.php3?ivymike1,ivymike
]
As you may
imagine, any building producing that kind of fire power needed some pretty
significant safety measures. Building Three was designed with a blast wall that
would give way rather than let the building explode. Additionally, ventilation
fans were placed on the roof, providing a way for hydrogen to escape, and
preventing explosions. The fans were so powerful they could completely exchange
the air of the entire building every one minute!
Subsequent
hydrogen bomb tests did not require large amounts of liquid hydrogen, so the
liquifier program faded out nearly as fast as it had come in. Much of the
original machinery is still in place in Building Three, and part of the
building is still in use today. The
top-knot vents you see are reminders of the liquifier program.
International Geophysical Year
A world-wide
cooperative scientific study of the Earth, the International Geophysical Year
began in 1957. In preparation for this endeavor, in 1956, the World Data Center
system was established, including one in Boulder, to collect, distribute, and
archive crucial geophysical data. Currently, 42 WDCs work on data that
encompass most facets of the global environment. WDCs are generally co-located
with national data centers and are funded by the respective nation. Boulder's
WDC is located with the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).
The International
Geophysical Year lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 1958, a period chosen to
occur during a solar maximum, to notice unusual effects of the sun on the
Earth. The IGY encompassed eleven Earth
sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, glaciology, gravity,
ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping),
meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.
NBS and Boulder’s Water Meters
When the National
Bureau of Standards, NIST's precursor, moved to Boulder, homes did not have
city water meters. As the population grew, an equitable way of charging for
water use was needed. NBS staff provided a method of installing meters by
freezing individual service lines with liquid nitrogen without disrupting
service to the entire area. This technique saved money and avoided
inconveniencing customers.
Contact
Information
Last
revised: May 17, 2005