SI brochure, Section 2.1.1.

1
The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

The 1889 definition of the metre, based on the international prototype of platinum-iridium, was replaced by the 11th CGPM(1960) using a definition based on the wavelength of krypton 86 radiation. This change was adopted in order to improve the accuracy with which the definition of the metre could be realized, the realization being achieved using an interferometer with a travelling microscope to measure the optical path difference as the fringes were counted. In turn, this was replaced in 1983 by the 17th CGPM (1983, Resolution 1) that specified the current definition, as follows: The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. It follows that the speed of light in vacuum is exactly 299 792 458 metres per second, c0 = 299 792 458 m/s. The original international prototype of the metre, which was sanctioned by the 1st CGPM in 1889, is still kept at the BIPM under conditions specified in 1889.

1872
Decision taken to make prototype metres, with the original metre held in the Archives de France serving as the reference. (The original metre and kilogram, called the Mtre des Archives and Kilogramme des Archives, were constructed in 1799 to be one ten-millionth of a quadrant of the Earth and the mass of a cubic decimetre of water respectively.)

1875 187678

Convention of the Metre signed.

Renovation of the buildings of the Pavillon de Breteuil and construction of a laboratory; recruitment of staff; acquisition of specialized equipment for length and mass comparisons.

187889

Preparation and measurement of thirty metre prototypes (and forty kilogram prototypes). This required matching, with an unprecedented precisio n, the new "X" cross-section metre line-standards to one another and to the 1799 metre (Mtre des Archives), which was an end standard. This entailed the development of some unique measuring equipment and of a reproducible, definable temperature scale. Selection of Metre and Kilogram prototypes which became the international prototypes. Distribution of the national prototypes. On 28 September 1889 the International Prototypes were deposited at the BIPM, where they remain today.

1887

Michelson proposed the use of optical interferometers for the measurement of length. He subsequently received the 1907 Nobel Prize for physics for, among other things, his metrological work.

189293

The Michelson interferometer was used at the BIPM (by Michelson and Benot) to determine the length of the metre in terms of the wavelength of the red line of cadmium.

1906

The above measurement was confirmed by Benot, Fabry and Perot using the interferometer made by Perot and Fabry.

1920 192136

Nobel Prize for physics for Ch.-Ed. Guillaume, then Director of BIPM, for his invention of invar.

First verification of the national prototypes by intercomparisons among themselves and by comparisons with the International Prototype. This included new and improved determinations of the thermal expansion of the metre bars.

1927

International accord, using the above 1893 and 1906 determinations of the wavelength of the red line of cadmium, defining the ngstrm; the ngstrm thus defined was henceforth used as the spectroscopic unit of length until abandoned in 1960.

1952

The CIPM decided to investigate the possibility of redefining the metre in terms of a wavelength of light, and established the Comit Consultatif pour la Dfinition du Mtre (now called the Consultative Committee for Length) for this purpose.

1960

The CGPM adopted a definition of the metre in terms of the wavelength in vacuum of the radiation corresponding to a transition between specified energy levels of the krypton 86 atom. At the BIPM, measurement of linescales in terms of this wavelength replaced comparisons of linescales between themselves; new equipment was installed for doing this by optical interferometry.

1975

The CGPM recommended a value for the speed of light in vacuum as a result of measurements of the wavelength and the frequency of laser radiation.

1983

The CGPM redefined the metre as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a specific fraction of a second. It invited the CIPM to draw up instructions for the practical realization of the new definition. The CIPM, having anticipated the above invitation, outlined general ways in which lengths can be directly related to the metre as newly defined. These included the wavelengths of five recommended laser radiations as well as those of spectral lamps. The wavelengths, frequencies and associated uncertainties were specified in the instructions for the practical realization of the definition. At the BIPM, comparison of laser frequencies by beat-frequency techniques supplemented the measurement of linescales in terms of wavelengths of the same lasers.

1987

In order to check the accuracy of practical realizations of the metre based upon the new definition, a new round of international comparisons of laser wavelengths by optical interferometry and frequency by beat-frequency techniques was begun at the BIPM. Such international comparisons comprised comparisons of individual components of the laser, in particular the absorption cells containing the atoms or molecules upon which the laser is stabilized, as well as comparisons of whole laser systems (optics, gas cells and electronics).

1992

The CIPM decided, on the basis of new work in national laboratories and at the BIPM, to reduce significantly the uncertainties associated with the laser radiations recommended in 1983 and to increase their number from five to eight.

1997

The CIPM modified the 1992 instructions for the practical realization of the definition by further reducing the uncertainties and increasing the number of recommended radiations from eight to twelve. Work continues at the BIPM and elsewhere to identify those factors that at present limit the reproducibility of lasers as wavelength and frequency standards.

kelvin

K
The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water.

SI brochure, Section 2.1.1.5

The definition of the unit of thermodynamic temperature was given in substance by the 10th CGPM (1954, Resolution 3) which selected the triple point of water as the fundamental fixed point and assigned to it the temperature 273.16 K, so defining the unit. The 13th CGPM (1967/68, Resolution 3) adopted the name kelvin, symbol K, instead of "degree Kelvin", symbol K, and defined the unit of thermodynamic temperature as follows (1967/68, Resolution 4): The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. It follows that the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water is exactly 273.16 kelvins, Ttpw = 273.16 K. At its 2005 meeting the CIPM affirmed that: This definition refers to water having the isotopic composition defined exactly by the following amount of substance ratios:0.000 155 76 mole of 2H per mole of 1H, 0.000 379 9 mole of 17O per mole of 16O, and 0.002 005 2 mole of 18O per mole of16O. Because of the manner in which temperature scales used to be defined, it remains common practice to express a thermodynamic temperature, symbol T, in terms of its difference from the reference temperature T0 = 273.15 K, the ice point. This difference is called the Celsius temperature, symbol t, which is defined by the quantity equation: t = T T0. The unit of Celsius temperature is the degree Celsius, symbol C, which is by definition equal in magnitude to the kelvin. A difference or interval of temperature may be expressed in kelvins or in degrees Celsius (13th CGPM, 1967/68, Resolution 3, mentioned above), the numerical value of the temperature difference being the same. However, the numerical value of a Celsius temperature expressed in degrees Celsius is related to the numerical value of the thermodynamic temperature expressed in kelvins by the relation t/C = T/K 273.15.

The kelvin and the degree Celsius are also units of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) adopted by the CIPM in 1989 in its Recommendation 5

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