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History of the Bureau International de l’Heure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

B. Guinot
B. Guinot*
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Département d’astronomie fondamentale, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, F-75014Paris

Abstract

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At the beginning of the 20th century, the development of radio time signals offered the possibility of unifying the measurements of Universal Time (UT). A new service, the Bureau International de l’Heure, hosted by the Paris Observatory, was entrusted with this task. The BIH began its operation in 1912, although its statutes were officially settled only in 1919. This paper recalls the activities of the BIH on time determination and various connected fields: Earth rotation, reference frames, atomic time. With the importance of atomic time and the emergence of new techniques for the measurement of Earth rotation, a new organization was required. It was prepared by the MERIT and COTES programs (1978) and by the bodies of the Metre Convention, with the active participation of the BIH. The BIH was dissolved at the end of 1987, its work being shared between the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures and the new International Earth Rotation Service.

Type
Part 2. History of the International Latitude Service, Bureau International de l’Heure, International Earth Rotation Service and Polar Motion Applications
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 178: Polar Motion: Historical and Scientific Problems , 2000 , pp. 175 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2000

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