FOREWORD: Fifty years of atomic time-keeping: 1955 to 2005

The year 2005 is the centenary of Einstein's four famous papers that were published in 1905. This anniversary is being widely celebrated all over the world and, indeed, 2005 has been dubbed World Year of Physics. The year 2005, however, also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first operation of Essen and Parry's caesium beam atomic frequency standard at the NPL in May 1955. While Einstein's papers signalled a revolution in physics and in our understanding of the natural world, the first atomic clock signalled a revolution in time-keeping that has become, among other things, one of the most powerful tools in pushing back the frontiers of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity. The atomic clock has also had consequences for navigation comparable to those brought about by Harrison's mechanical clocks almost exactly two hundred years before. Harrison's H3 was completed in 1757 and H4 in 1759. The atomic clock, and the creation of an atomic time scale that quickly followed, led ten years later to the adoption of an atomic definition for the SI second in Resolution 1 of the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures, 1967/68. This marked the end of time-keeping based on the movements of the heavenly bodies that had beaten the rhythm of the days and the seasons since the dawn of human civilization. Fifty years on is a good occasion to look back, to look forward and at the same time to examine where we are today, in terms of measuring time. While we still arrange for our atomic clocks to show noon when the sun is overhead on the Greenwich meridian, everything else has changed in the fifty years since 1955. In this special issue of Metrologia the reader will find articles on the development of the atomic clock, its theory and practice, how the first atomic time scale was devised and formally introduced and how we maintain atomic time today, as well as articles looking forward to even more accurate clocks and time scales. Included also are articles on the commercial development of atomic clocks of various types and on some of their applications. At the beginning there is a deliberate emphasis on the history of the introduction of atomic time, including the technical problems to be resolved and the personalities involved. You will see that it includes one article based on notes left by Louis Essen himself, for which we are most grateful to his son-in-law, Mr Ray Essen, for permission to use them and to Dale Henderson of the NPL, who arranged them for publication here. I hope that this issue will stand as a reference for years to come and I am most grateful to all those who have contributed. I also wish to thank most particularly Norman Ramsey, whose name is indelibly associated with atomic clocks, for having contributed the first article to this special issue.