Pursuing frequency standards and control: the invention of quartz clock technologies

Abstract

The quartz clock, the first to replace the pendulum as the time standard and later a ubiquitous and highly influential technology, originated in research on means for determining frequency for the needs of telecommunication and the interests of its users. This article shows that a few groups in the US, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands developed technologies that enabled the construction of the new clock in 1927-28. To coordinate complex and large communication networks, the monopolistic American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and national laboratories needed to determine and maintain a common 'standard' frequency measurement unit. Exploiting novel piezoelectric quartz methods and valve electronics techniques, researchers in these organizations constructed a new crystal-based frequency standard. To ensure its accuracy they compared it to an accepted absolute standard - an astronomical clock, constructing thereby the first quartz clock. Other groups, however, had different, though connected, technological aims, which originated from the diverse interests of the industrial, governmental and academic institutes to which they belonged, and for which they needed to measure, control and manipulate with frequencies of electric oscillations. The present article suggests a comparative examination of the research and development paths of these groups on their incentives, the technological and scientific resources they utilized, and the kind of research carried out in the various institutional settings.

Time and tide: pendulum clocks and gravity tides

“…No such clock of adequate accuracy existed until the 1920s, when electronically maintained oscillators such as tuning forks and quartz crystals were developed. The first quartz-crystal clock was developed by Warren Marrison in 1927 (Katzir, 2016); very soon after (1929) it was used for the study of pendulum clocks. This project was initiated (and funded) by Alfred L. Loomis (Conant, 2002), who turned to various scientific investigations after a very successful legal and financial career had brought him great wealth.…”

The Shaping of Interwar Physics by Technology: The Case of Piezoelectricity

“…David Dye, at the British National Physical Laboratory (NPL) employed the piezo-resonator in frequency measurement methods, which he learnt directly from Cady who used them in a 1923 international tour to compare a few national frequency standards (Cady 1924). Dye developed technics based on these principle for the government's aim of coordinating wireless transmission and for the military services’ interest in improving long distance radio communication (Katzir 2016a, 23–4). In addition to research and development of piezoelectric devices, Dye embarked, like Cady, on an empirical and theoretical study of the resonator.…”

“…At the laboratory of the expanding Dutch company Philips, Balthasar van der Pol developed a similar equivalent network, limited to fewer cases, to facilitate analysis of resonator circuits used for frequency control, which was of technological interest to his corporation. Although van der Pol enjoyed relative freedom to carry in-depth scientific research on questions weakly related to the interests of Philips (Katzir 2016a, 31–6), in this case he engaged in a technological research on the properties of a device. He dwelt neither on the derivation of the equivalent network nor on its relation to the piezoelectric and elastic properties of quartz (Van der Pol 1926).…”

“…A prolific inventor, Meissner first applied piezoelectricity for a new microphone in 1923. Yet, it seems that he and his colleagues began research on the resonator only in 1925, probably with the progress of radio technology and the resulting interest of Telefunken in frequency standards and control (on the industrial interest, see Katzir 2016a). Their research led both to patents and to more general publications.…”

“…It mapped the properties of various cuts and modes of vibrations leading to empirical rules about them. These rules helped to design crystal cuts and modes of vibrations, more useful for specific goals: resonating at high or low frequencies, which was needed to control frequencies in new devices operating in an expanding spectrum of wavelengths used in radio and telephony; maintaining a stable frequency under temperature variations, which was needed for the exceeding precision required from radio transmitters and for establishing frequency standards for national and corporate telecommunication systems (Katzir 2016a).…”