The first atomic clock came into existence in 1949. The U.S. National Bureau of standards was the home of this prototype of modern atomic clocks. The first accurate atomic clock was designed in 1955. This clock was based upon the transition of the cesium-133 atom. The discovery of this technology was the basis if the internationally agreed upon second. The United States has an official clock, an atomic clock, that is responsible for the accuracy of time throughout the country and is working in conjunction with clocks around the world to ensure that time is kept in unison across the globe.

Today we can find atomic clocks for our homes, offices, and electronic devices. These highly popular clocks can be purchased from your local retailers or from reputable online merchants who specialize in bringing you only the best, most precise timepieces around. Various styles and designs will make it easy for you to choose the atomic clock that best suits your needs. The atomic clocks used by government entities are by far the most accurate, but personal atomic clocks are highly reliable and you will be certain that you always know exactly what time it is at any given moment.

When shopping for an atomic clock, keep in mind that versions available to the general public are not suitable for scientific calculations, but instead a personal asset and a symbol of precise decisiveness. You can find an atomic clock in any price range and in many styles. An atomic clock makes a great conversation piece and will be a stylish addition to your home or office. Taste, style, and precision are what you will find when you begin your search for the perfect atomic clock. Great deals and numerous choices are a click away.

Who does not have a few clocks in his or her home? Everyone needs them and we all use them each and every day of our lives. There are many different kinds of and most of us own several. There are many different clocks, wall, grandfather, the ever popular alarm and, of course, my personal favorite Coldplay. Clocks are simply a part of our lives the whole world round, there is even a world clock and an atomic clock. We just cannot escape these infernal, yet useful machines.

The history of clocks goes far back into the past of humans. The sun dial was an early form, it was a rather rudimentary design but it was accurate and it worked for people back then. Now of course we are even busier and we need to be more precise about everything that we do. We are always rushing off to somewhere and without clocks we would not be able to get there in time. In fact it seems as though time runs our lives these days.

Wall clocks are a great addition to any room in your home. They are attractive and they do not take up any floor space. Most of us are lacking in the floor space that grandfather clocks need so we make do with wall clocks.

Wall clocks are also nice because they are easy to make room for. They come in all different shapes and sizes, which make them perfect for squeezing in on even a busy and full wall. Wall clocks look great in any home with any décor. There are all kinds that are plain enough to match anywhere in any room. These are the most popular of all and thankfully the least expensive as well.

You can find some pretty exciting looking clocks as well. If you like to make a statement then you will want to choose ones that are a little different from the everyday. This means looking to clocks that are perhaps bright and colorful or even large and full of fantastic art forms. Strange and unusual shaped ones are a big hit as well and your home could definitely benefit from these.

Grandfather clocks are something that many people have had passed down to them from past generations in their family. Other people go searching for them. These are some of the most fantastic and glorious clocks in the whole world. They are generally large, though how large may differ from one example to the next.

Some of the best grandfather clocks are the older generation. These can be found in antique stores or online auctions and they are generally very expensive. In fact, all of them tend to be quite expensive but they are always well worth the money that you spend on them. They make wonderful heirlooms for you to pass down in your own family. This is a clock that your great grandchildren will feel honored to receive down the line.

If time is crucial to you or your office, consider investing in atomic clocks so that everyone knows exactly what time it is and everyone has the same time. These are the most accurate time keeping pieces you can get, and more and more businesses are using atomic wall clocks to make sure that accurate time sheets and appointments are kept.

But what are atomic clocks and why are they so much more accurate than regular clocks? A standard clock, whether wind-up, electric or battery operated, counts time by the number of “ticks” that a resonator makes. The resonator is the device that actually keeps track of time. In most clocks the resonator is either a swinging pendulum or (in digital clocks) oscillations in the power line (which is a bit different in the U.S. and in Europe).

Atomic clocks also use a resonator, but the resonator counts based on the resonance frequency of atoms. Resonance is the emission or absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation by an atom. It is very regular, and no matter which atom of cesium used, the frequency of resonance is always exactly the same. This is why atomic clocks are so much more accurate than other clocks – the resonators in other clocks can be affected by lots of variables like temperature, moisture and atmospheric conditions. None of these affect the atoms, so the atomic clocks never lose or gain time.

Synchronization of Atomic Clocks

The reason all atomic clocks show the same time anywhere you go is because they don’t each have their own cesium atom – this would be impossible because it’s incredibly expensive and requires very precise conditions. Atomic clocks are actually receiving the time from a shared location where one of the world’s few of the world’s atomic clocks operates. A low –frequency radio signal broadcasts the time from that location to all atomic clocks within its range. There are currently approximately 200 atomic clocks world-wide in sixty countries.

In the United States, most atomic clocks used for home and offices are synchronized to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. The other official atomic clock is at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and is the official time clock of the Department of Defense. Since both of these atomic clocks are within one second of each other over a million years of time, it is unlikely that time displayed on atomic wall clocks at the Pentagon will differ from the time displayed on an atomic clock in your home office!

How Do At-Home Clocks Get the Information from Master Atomic Clocks?

Global positioning satellites (GPS) in the skies above us transmit the signals from the official atomic clocks to individual receivers in atomic wall clocks and desk clocks all over the world. In other countries, the signal would come from whichever clock is the official atomic clock for that region, just as the one in Boulder, Colorado is the one for the United States.

These amazingly accurate atomic clocks are also responsible for the fact that all computers with built-in clocks are synchronized and accurate and keep time whether on or off. With such accurate time keeping and the use of GPS, you can be sure that your atomic clocks will let you know exactly what time it is, down to the nano-second!

Louis Essen was born in 1908 in a small city in England called Nottingham. His childhood was typical of the time and he pursued his education with enjoyment and dedication. At the age of 20 Louis graduated from the University of Nottingham, where he had been studying. It was at this time that his career started to take off, as he was invited to join the NPL, or National Physics Laboratory.

It was during Louis’s time at the NPL that he began working to develop a quartz crystal oscillator as he believed they were capable of measuring time as accurately as a pendulum based clock. Ten years after joining the NPL Louis had invented the Essen ring. This was an eponymous invention which took its name from the shape of the quartz which Louis had used in his latest clock and which was three times more accurate than the previous versions.

Louis soon moved on to newer areas of research and began to study ways to measure the speed of light. During World War II he began to work on high frequency radar and used his technical ability to develop the cavity resonance wavemeter. From 1946 it was this wavemeter which he used, along with a colleague by the name of Albert Gordon-Smith, to make his lightspeed measurements. It has been acknowledged recently that Louis’s measurements were by far the most accurate to have been recorded up until that time.

During the early part of the 1950’s Louis began to take an interest in research which was being carried out at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in the United States of America. He learnt that work was being carried out to invent a clock which was more accurate than any other. The American scientists were using the idea of maintaining a clock’s accuracy by using the radiation emitted or absorbed by atoms. At that time the Americans were using a molecule of ammonia but Louis felt that this was not working as well as if they were using different atoms, such as hydrogen or caesium, and so he began working on his own clock using these materials instead.

1953 saw Louis and a colleague, Jack Parry, receiving permission to develop an atomic clock at the NPL based on Louis’s existing knowledge of quartz crystal oscillators and other relevant techniques he had learned from the cavity resonance wavemeter he had previously designed. Only two years later Louis’s first atomic clock was running, Caesium I, designed by the UK scientists. Development in the United States had all but stopped due to political difficulties.

Louis continued to work on his atomic clock and by 1964 he had managed to increase the accuracy of the atomic clock from one second in 300 years to one second every 2000 years! The continued success of Louis’s work resulted in the definition of a second being changed from 1/864000 of a mean solar day to being calculated as the time it took for 9192631770 cycles of the radiation in an atomic clock.

Louis Essen died in 1997 and before his death had been honoured with, amongst others, an OBE and the Tompion Gold Medal of the Clockmakers’ Company.

In the last post, we looked at the impact the Internet has had on all of our lives. The convenience it has afforded us has allowed us to do everything from shop to work online and most of us have become so dependent on its conveniences that we are often hard pressed to find another option.

However, being the age that I am, I reverted to past behavior when I found myself in need of a wall clock for my family room. Wanting something really special to hang above my fireplace, I went in search of a bricks and mortar location; as I couldn’t imagine finding something of high enough quality online. But when I pulled the phone directory out and began to leaf through it, my teenage daughter stopped me in my tracks with “Are you kidding me mom?”

She logged on within seconds and had me at this amazing website where I found all of the most stunning, high quality (and affordable!) clocks I could ever hope to find in a retail outlet – and then some! Everything from grandfather clocks and mantel clocks to wall clocks and atomic clocks were on this one site and easy to browse by style, price, or manufacturer.

In found the wall clock I was looking for and it only took minutes. Within a few days it was delivered to my door and every time I look at it I am reminded of the luxuries I am privileged to have access to online.

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Today’s consuming public is used to a high level of convenience, afforded to them by the Internet. The conventional meaning for “legwork” – referring to the effort and research that shoppers would traditionally put into finding the perfect product is now work that is done on a virtual – rather than physical – level. Shopping has become something that is done from a work or home computer; with the click of a few keys consumers can compare and contrast similar products in terms of quality, performance, and price. Even products for which consumers may not expect to be able to shop online are readily available; such as clocks.

Clocks are something to which people rarely give much thought – until they are in the market to buy one. Hanging from our walls, sitting atop our mantels, standing in the corners of our rooms, or perching on the edge of a bedroom nightstand, clocks are something that we take for granted in terms of their functionality. But shopping for clocks becomes more than just finding a functional clock – it becomes about finding a clock that works with the overall design of the home; something that can be accomplished online.

Suppliers such as 1-800-4CLOCKS that offer online services understand the importance of offering high quality products in a way that is most convenient and acceptable for modern consumers. Customers can logon and find clocks of all types – mantel clocks, wall clocks, atomic clocks, grandfather clocks, and styles – contemporary, traditional, antique – from the comfort of their home. By having this convenient service, clock manufacturers such as 1-800-4CLOCKS allow shoppers to take the time to examine the many styles of clocks available to them and decide what will work best for their home.

If we can’t get creative in our own homes, where can we get creative? After all, this is the one place in the world where we have creative license to do whatever we want to do and no one is going to judge us for it. Those who enjoy bolder colors are given the go-ahead to put reds, yellows, and other eye-popping colors in areas throughout their home and those who prefer a particular decorating style in terms of furniture and other accessories are able to see those plans play out in their home. It’s a blank palette and it’s ours for the taking!

Clocks have always been those pieces that helped to move our decorative plan along and make it something truly special. There are a variety of ways in which to use clocks and most of us are looking for creative ideas for making the clocks in our home come to life in a way that allows us to infuse our own personality and see our vision realized.

To this end, clocks can be used in a variety of ways including:

* Clocks shouldn’t be used in overabundance in the bedroom, but you don’t have to necessarily use those atomic clocks with flashing digital numbers either. Consider an antique styled clock on a nightstand or a mantel clock on a dresser or occasional table.

* Hang a wall clock in an area of the home where it is a focal point rather than just an accessory. Wall clocks are especially dramatic in areas such as dining rooms and even in a downstairs formal powder room!

* Don’t forget the kitchen. The kitchen is often one of the most overlooked rooms in the home in terms of décor. Just because we cook in this room doesn’t mean it can’t be decorated fabulously. Consider a wall clock or a mantel clock in this room to give it some creative spark!

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Buying a first home is an exciting – and well, terrifying – experience. There is nothing better than the feeling of independence that comes with owning your own home and for young people who are just starting out this first experience can mark their first foray into the real world on a number of different levels. Of course there are many things to consider with the purchase of a first home, financial considerations notwithstanding. But when the dust clears and the new homeowners find themselves standing in the middle of their new place, it becomes all about decorating. White walls and non-descript design needs to be transformed into a home that says something about the people that live there. And one of the ways that new homeowners can infuse their own personality into their new home is through the use of clocks.

When most people think of a clock they think of a functional piece that is used to tell the time. And this is true. But it is not the only thing that is true about clocks. Modern clocks are as much pieces of furniture as they are time telling devices. Made in a variety of styles including contemporary, traditional, antique-inspired, country, and the like, clocks can be an affordable way to add style to any room in a new home.

*Try a mantel clock on a fireplace. With just this small addition the entire face of the fireplace can be transformed.

*Hang a wall clock in an entranceway where it can add sophistication and its melody can welcome visitors. Or try a wall clock in a dining room where you wish to add an air of formality.

*Try some unique atomic clocks in a bedroom where fun additions can really liven up the room.

The term “flow” is often used to refer to a house that is able to – through the use of natural construction or design pieces that trick the eye – lead those who enter the home through a seamless transition from one room to the next. There is a symbiotic relationship between the elements in one room and the elements in another; enough so that a flow of energy is created that gives the home a natural sense of openness and that you are not being met with wall after wall as you travel through the house.

For those homes that were not built from the start with an open floor plan – those more traditional homes that have one boxy room after another – there is a challenge placed to the homeowner to create the flow themselves. This is something that can be done with the proper elements. Many times homeowners employ the philosophies of such design techniques as those used in Feng Shui and other principles to help stimulate the natural flow of the home. But in other cases, through just the use of different colors along with textured materials and pieces of furniture – that don’t match but are familiar from room to room- the homeowner is able to create a synthetic flow that did not originally exist.

Clocks used room to room allow for that familiarity without having to necessarily match each piece to the next. A mantel clock used in the family room, followed by a wall clock used in the sitting area, followed by a small – almost unnoticeable – atomic clock on a shelf in a study; these are all ways in which to use the clock to weave an unidentifiable but still perceptible thread throughout the home.

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