Dr. Ralph Alpher's son, Dr. Victor Alpher, contacted me recently to perform an Accutron repair. He remembers his father wearing this Accutron and wore it himself for several years until its need for service prompted him to put it aside. A standard service and cleaning, along with a replaced index wheel and sweep pinion was all that was needed to get in humming and keeping time once again. For me, it is interesting to imagine an association between an Accutron and the origins of the universe. I was pleased to have been allowed to make its repair.
Ralph A. Alpher's work is most closely associated with the acceptance of the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the observable universe through his prediction of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation in 1948. The prediction was about 5 K, the observed value accepted today is 2.725 Kelvin. This radiation was observed and confirmed in 1965, earning A. Penzias and R. Wilson the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite launched in 1989 was a project designed to make more precise measurements of the CMBR in all directions--it was discovered to vary in some directions, and led to another Nobel in 2006 to J. Mather and G. Smoot. Anyone wishing to see more about his work in Cosmology and for the Bureau of Ordnance can go to, www.ralphalpher.com.
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