In our on-going series looking at classic computing devices birthed at HP, we see not only what they did, but also get a better sense of what was happening at the time each product came to market. (For a full explanation of why we’re calling this “Tales from the Next Bench,” read here).
    在 “惠普档案馆”系列文章中，我们介绍了各种惠普公司创造的神奇产品。我们不仅会介绍惠普曾经发明过什么，也将介绍这些产品上市时都发生了什么。
 

    This installment: HP 5060A cesium-beam (1964, 1967)
    HP 5060A铯束（1964，1967）

    Say it with me: “Cesium-Beam.” What may sound like it’s out of a Star Wars movie, is actually something that affects how you go about your day – the time. Back in 1964, as HP celebrated its 25th anniversary as a company, HP introduced the highly accurate HP 5060A cesium-beam to keep accurate time. In short, this is the tech behind the atomic clock. Think about it for a second….since you can accurately measure it now. How many times have you noticed a clock running a little slow or a couple minutes ahead? Any clock is bound to be a nanosecond off and, over time, those nanoseconds add up.

    来，跟我一起说：“铯束”！ 貌似它听上去来自电影《星球大战》，但事实上，它是会影响你生活中每一天的——时间。早在1964年，为了庆祝公司成立25周年，惠普公司推出了高度精确的HP 5060A铯束原子钟，用来确保时间的准确。简而言之，这台原子钟背后蕴含着相当高的科技。如今我们通过它拥有更准确的时间，但请想一下，曾经有多少次，你注意到钟表走得有点慢，或是快了两分钟？事实上，任何钟表都注定会有一个纳秒的停息，原子钟也不例外，随着时间的推移，这些纳秒累计起来会变成不小的误差。

    How does it work? To get a little more scientific about it, I found this site, which explains it fairly well:
    原子钟是如何工作的？为什么它会如此准确，下面来听听更科学的解释：

    “A cesium clock operates by exposing cesium atoms to microwaves until they vibrate at one of their resonant frequencies and then counting the corresponding cycles as a measure of time. The frequency involved is that of the energy absorbed from the incident photons when they excite the outermost electron in a cesium atom to jump ("transition") from a lower to a higher orbit.” The result is that cesium-beam clocks can be accurate within 2 nanoseconds per day or one second in 1,400,000 years, according to the site.
    “一个铯钟的工作原理是：将铯原子暴露于微波中，直到它们以一个频率共振，然后以一个相应的周期作为时间度量。所涉及的频率，在激发一个铯原子中最外面的电子从底层轨道跳（“迁移”）到更高的轨道时，从发生摩擦的光子中吸收能量。”根据这一说法，其结果是铯束钟的精确度为每天偏差在2个纳秒内，或者每140万年偏差一秒。

    Now that we understand how it works (if you were able to follow that, because I had to read it a couple of times!), let’s jump ahead a couple years to 1967. That’s when a team of HP engineers took to the skies to test its atomic clocks. Traveling to 18 countries (too bad they didn’t have frequent flyer programs back then) these atomic clocks were developed to synchronize international time standards. As a result of these test runs, the cesium beam became the standard for international time.
    现在我们知道了它是如何工作的（如果你能够明白的话，因为我不得不看了两遍才弄懂），让我们跳回到1967年。那时，惠普的工程师团队开始在全球各地测试原子钟，他们总共走访了18个国家，这些原子钟被设定为与国际时间标准同步。最终，这些测试使得铯束成为国际时间的标准。

    And with that, another excuse for being late to work was gone. Speaking of which, is it a coincidence that HP introduced the concept of flexible working hours in 1967 as well? I’ll have to look into that.
    有了这么准的钟，还有哪个迟到借口会成立呢？说到这儿，惠普公司在1967年开始推行其著名的“弹性工作制”，难道会是一个巧合吗？

    What else was happening in 1967?
    1967年还发生了什么？
   

    It was a year of many firsts – and part of an era of amazing changes. North American football hosted the first Super Bowl (Go Green Bay!) andRolling Stone rolled out its first issue. It’s the same year that The Beatles released the seminal album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

    这一年诞生了很多第一次——以及一部分惊人的时代变化。北美橄榄球举办了第一届超级碗比赛，《滚石（Rolling Stone）》杂志出版了第一期。同年，披头士乐队发布了之后产生巨大影响的专辑——《佩珀中士的孤独之心俱乐部乐队（Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band）》。

    But in theaters, 1967 was all about “man movies,” including one of my husband’s favorites: The Dirty Dozen. Of course, I’d be remiss to ignore what else was happening in the world. Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black justice on the Supreme Court as Muhammad Ali is stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to join the US Army.
    在电影院里，1967年上映的都是有关“男人的影片”，包括一部我丈夫的最爱：《十二金刚（The Dirty Dozen）》。当然，我马虎大意的忽视了当时世界上发生的其他事情。Thurgood Marshall成为了美国高等法院中的第一个黑人法官，拳王阿里（Muhammad Ali）因为拒绝参军被剥夺了重量级冠军。

    Of course, we’re not ignoring the fact that the world was bubbling over. Race riots broke out in a number of US cities; Arab forces attacked Israel for six days. And as HP worked on atomic clocks,China tested its first hydrogen bomb.
    当然，我们不能忽视世界上发生的其他事。种族骚乱在一些美国城市发生，阿拉伯军队对以色列进行了持续六天的袭击。当惠普为原子钟努力的同时，中国的第一颗氢弹实验成功。