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Portrait of Albert A. Michelson
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Portrait of Albert A. Michelson

 1928  NIST Historical Collection
As early as 1889, Albert A. Michelson and E.W. Morley suggested the feasibility of establishing the wavelength of light from an electrical discharge lamp as the ultimate standard to replace the meter bar. In 1894, Michelson carried out an interferometric comparison of the International Meter, using the red, green, and blue lines of cadmium.