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Highlights of the NIST Museum

Located on NIST Campus in Gaithersburg, MD

The Hall of Standards contains exhibits on the International System of Units, the Beautiful Measures, and selected Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler correspondence.

Since 1901, NIST has maintained increasingly more precise measures for the United States.

The NIST museum showcases many of NIST's historic achievements, information about some of NIST's notable scientists, and objects of importance to the history of metrology.

The Hall of Standards, pictured at right, leads from the reception area at the front of NIST's Administration Building to NIST's Museum and Research Library. The Hall contains exhibits on the International System of Units, Beautiful Measures, and selected Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler correspondence.

This NIST Museum brochure highlights NIST exhibits and illustrates the physical layout of the museum. Adobe Acrobat is needed to view this PDF file

The Bat Missile Exhibit

The exhibit displays the first fully automated guided missile employed in combat. NIST developed the radar guidance system for this World War II era weapon, on display in the Museum Lobby.

The Bat Missile, World War II era weapon.

Jacob Rabinow Room

The OCR Machine invented by Jacob Rabinow Jacob Rabinow (1910-1999), a NIST engineer and prolific inventor, was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2005. He patented 230 inventions, including an optical character reading machine (1954). This machine recognized printed text, automating work previously done by hand at the U .S. Postal Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, and private businesses. Many of Rabinow's inventions are on display in this room.

The Shortt Clock

The Shortt Clock, most accurate of mechanical clocks. The Shortt clock is the most accurate of mechanical clocks. Around 1929, NIST purchased this clock for Dr. Paul R. Heyl to use in his second determination of G, the gravitational constant.

Last updated: July 13, 2009

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