PTB's Berlin Institute > PTB's Berlin Institute
Chronology
From the PTR to the PTB<dl><dt>1887 </dt><dd>Establishment of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR) in Berlin-Charlottenburg at the initiative of, most notably, Werner von Siemens. First president: Hermann von Helmholtz (until 1894). </dd><dt>1893 </dt><dd>Wien’s displacement law and in 1896 radiation law for "black bodies" (Nobel Prize 1911). </dd><dt>1896 - 1900 </dt><dd>Radiation measurements by Lummer, Wien, Pringsheim, Rubens and Kurlbaum provide the experimental foundation for Planck's radiation law, giving rise to the beginning of quantum physics. </dd><dt>1898 </dt><dd>First legal tasks of PTR: realization and maintenance of the electrical units and testing of measuring instruments for electrical quantities. </dd><dt>1913 </dt><dd>Geiger: needle counter for radioactive radiation. </dd><dt>1915 </dt><dd>Einstein (as guest) and de Haas: gyromagnetic effect. </dd><dt>1917 </dt><dd>Kösters: interference comparator for length measurements. </dd><dt>1923 </dt><dd>Integration of the Reichsanstalt für Maß und Gewicht (Imperial Weights and Measures Office).PTR responsible for the establishment and ensuring of all legal units. Technical supervision of the verification and testing offices. </dd><dt>1925 </dt><dd>Bothe (Nobel Prize 1954) and Geiger: coincidence method and proof of the validity of the energy theorem for radioative ionization. Ida Tacke and Walter Noddack: discovery of the element rhenium. Meissner: first helium liquefaction in Germany. </dd><dt>1932 - 1934 </dt><dd>Scheibe and Adelsberger: highly accurate quartz clock, irregularity of Earth's rotation is measurable for the first time. </dd><dt>1933 </dt><dd>Meißner and Ochsenfeld: magnetic field expulsion from metals during the transition to superconductivity. </dd><dt>1939 - 1945 </dt><dd>Standard frequency broadcasting via the German station in Zeesen. </dd><dt>1943 - 1945 </dt><dd>Evacuation of most of the PTR laboratories from Berlin, primarily to Weida, in Thuringia. Heavy war damage to the Berlin buildings. </dd></dl>After reconstruction: <dl><dt>1945 </dt><dd>in Braunschweig: PTR -> PTA (1948) -> PTB (1950) and in Berlin: West: PTR-Berlin in Charlottenburg (until 1953) East: PTR -> DAMG (1946) -> DAM (1961) -> DAMW (1964) -> ASMW (1973), lastly in Friedrichshagen </dd><dt>1950 </dt><dd>The PTB in Braunschweig becomes the National Metrology Institute of the Federal Republic of Germany. </dd></dl> The Berlin Institute of the PTB<dl><dt>1953 </dt><dd>PTR-Berlin becomes the Berlin Institute of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig and Berlin. </dd><dt>1968 </dt><dd>New group High-Temperature and Vacuum Physics. </dd><dt>1969 </dt><dd>Units Act and Verification Act assign PTB tasks. </dd><dt>1977 </dt><dd>Establishment of the Deutscher Kalibrierdienst (DKD - German Calibration Service), Group Electrical Measurement Technology becomes Low Temperature Physics. </dd><dt>1978 </dt><dd>The Time Act commissions PTB with the realization and dissemination of legal time.Group Solid State Physics becomes Medical Measuring Techniques. </dd><dt>1979 </dt><dd>Skeleton agreement on the erection and operation of the Berlin Electron Storage Ring for Synchrotron Radiation (BESSY). Operation of the storage ring starts in 1981. At BESSY, PTB operates a laboratory utilizing synchrotron radiation for optical metrology, primarily at short wavelengths. </dd><dt>1981 </dt><dd>Magnetically shielded room for biomagnetic investigations with highly sensitive SQUIDs. </dd><dt>1983 </dt><dd>Group Mechanics and Thermal Engineering becomes Applied Thermal Measuring Methods. </dd><dt>1984 </dt><dd>Proof that BESSY, with suitable operating parameters, is a radiation source with calculable radiant power (radiometric primary standard as formerly only the blackbody radiator). </dd><dt>1988 </dt><dd>New group Biosignals. </dd><dt>1990 </dt><dd>Assuming the tasks in metrology of the former Amt für Standardisierung, Meßwesen und Warenprüfung (ASMW - Office for Standardization, Metrology and Commodity Testing) of the GDR. In connection therewith: Reorganization of the Berlin Institute, establishment of the Temperature, Medical Measuring Techniques division and of the Dienststelle Friedrichshagen (Friedrichshagen Office). In the high temperature range above 631 °C, the new International Temperature Scale ITS-90 is essentially based on work by the PTB, which was carried out in the Berlin Institute. </dd><dt>1991 </dt><dd>New divisions Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation and Medical Physics and Information Technology in the Berlin Institute. Responsibility for the temperature scale transferred to Berlin. Concentration of PTB on the Braunschweig and Berlin-Charlottenburg sites in the following decade. </dd><dt>1992 </dt><dd>Berlin-Adlershof selected as site for BESSY II. Operation of the storage ring starts in 1998. Cooperation in the field of medical measuring techniques, particularly measuring techniques for diagnostics, with the Steglitz Clinic of the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1993, establishment of a PTB laboratory in the Steglitz Clinic. </dd><dt>1993 </dt><dd>Measuring facility for medical laser measuring techniques for tumour detection in the Robert-Rössle Clinic at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. </dd><dt>1994 </dt><dd>The Medical Devices Act stipulates further tasks of PTB. </dd><dt>1999 </dt><dd>Formal inauguration of the synchrotron radiation laboratory of PTB, relocated from BESSY to BESSY II, with a festive event 100 Years of Radiometry - 1899 to 1999 in the Berlin Institute. Shutdown of BESSY. Relocation of the Berlin Landesamt für Mess- und Eichwesen (LME - State Office of Metrology and Verification) from the PTB premises to the former BESSY building in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. PTB utilizes the vacated buildings for the site concentration in Berlin. </dd><dt>2000 </dt><dd>Inauguration of the restored former Deutsches Arbeitsschutzmuseum (Industrial Safety Museum), in the immediate vicinity of the other buildings of the Berlin Institute, as the Hermann-von-Helmholtz Building. International Provisional Low Temperature Scale 2000 (PLTS-2000) for the low temperature range from 0.9 mK to 1 K, the establishment of which PTB was significantly involved in. </dd><dt>2001 </dt><dd>Leave-taking of PTB from the Berlin-Friedrichshagen site with the event The PTB - 10 years after German reunification. </dd><dt>2003 </dt><dd>Completion of the concentration on Charlottenburg concerning the Berlin PTB site with the inauguration of the new building Berlin Instrument Construction on the section of the PTB premises formerly used by the Berlin LME. New departmental structure, including the two Berlin divisions, within the scope of a reform of the PTB organizational structure. </dd></dl> | The BeginningsThe Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin soon became a model for the setting up of similar state metrological institutes in more than 100 countries to date. Examples are the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) established in 1900 in Great Britain and the National Bureau of Standards, today the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) founded a year later in the USA.
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