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NIST History

History Blogs

Unidentified Museum Objects V

May 14, 2019

In celebration of National Inventors Month 2019 (yes, it’s a thing) we’re highlighting some curious inventions currently cooling their heels in the NIST museum

Chasing Paper: Adventures in Fiber Analysis

March 19, 2019

Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, I had no scientific aspirations as a child. I do remember being entertained by science, relishing public television

For All Times, For All Peoples: How Replacing the Kilogram Empowers Industry

November 27, 2018

Two unusual things happened on Nov. 16, 2018. Fifty-four nations from every continent (except Antarctica) agreed on something, and metrology, the science of

Rescuing Our History from the Ashes

November 6, 2018

What strikes terror in the hearts of museum curators everywhere? Budget cuts, surely. But worse yet, the prospect of precious, irreplaceable relics being

Unidentified Museum Objects IV

August 7, 2018

The underground storage shelves of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Museum are filled with loads of charmingly weird objects accrued

The Tangled Tale of NIST’s Newton Apple Tree

June 26, 2018

Retired West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, himself the scion of a long and storied family tree, is among those to whom the National Institute of Standards

Unidentified Museum Objects, Vol. III

April 17, 2018

Much like your attic, garage or basement, the NIST archives are home to quite a number of arcane objects of unclear origin and purpose. We periodically collect

The Big Inch: Fueling America’s WWII War Effort

March 26, 2018

If you drive north from NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus, you will soon reach the famed Mason-Dixon Line marking the border between the states of Maryland

The Test of Time: NIST’s Wall of Many Stones

January 16, 2018

Frequented by more deer than people, the NIST stone test wall lives a fairly isolated existence. Out among the trees and the grass on the south end of the

Proving Our Mettle: NIST and the Boltzmann Constant Competition

December 21, 2017

How tall are you? How old? How much do you weigh? Do you care? Is it important to you that the measurements for height, age and weight are accurate? What about

Created March 1, 2021, Updated May 28, 2026

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