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Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

Keith Martin

Keith Martin

Keith Martin is a librarian at the NIST Research Library. He often comes across interesting stories from NIST’s past while working with NIST scientists on their current projects.

Pirate flag with grave

Pirates of the Caribbean (Metric Edition)

Keith Martin
To save his own life, Joseph Dombey had an idea. As two pirate ships surrounded the ship he was on in the Caribbean Sea in 1794, Dombey scrambled below deck, disrobing as he went. He appropriated the
Pigeon bomb pilot

The Saga of the Bird-Brained Bombers

Keith Martin
During World War II, NIST was among those working intensely to develop guided weapons to help the Allies win the war. But before the advent of satellites and GPS, laser targeting or even radar, how
Grote Reber's Sterling, Virginia, radio telescope installation

Grote Reber, Radio Astronomer

Keith Martin
Dulles International Airport, in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., sits on land once owned by NIST. It was on this spot that NIST brought together an eclectic combination of people