Word: millionths
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...minute unit of length, named for Swedish Physicist A. J. Angstrom. One angstrom is one hundred millionth of a centimeter...
Bringing such "reactors" together is touchy business. The scientists work with infinite caution, watching instruments which measure the number of free neutrons within the experimental mass. Under some conditions, the chain reaction starts slowly. But sometimes it leaps into violence in a millionth of a second. There is no explosion, no vibration, no sound. No human sense can detect the outburst of deadly radiation. The only warning, which comes too late, is a faint bluish glow. Some experts think it is caused by ionization of the air; others believe it to be an optical illusion telegraphed to the brain...
...described a bolometer to top them all. Its sensitive surface is columbium nitride cooled by liquid hydrogen to minus 432° F. At this temperature-close to absolute zero-columbium nitride becomes "superconductive"; its electrical resistance almost vanishes. When a heat ray hits it and warms it only one millionth of a degree, it gives a clear electrical signal...
...receiving end, the mingled snatches are sorted out by another special cathode-ray tube and distributed to 24 listening telephones. Each set of one-millionth-of-a-second pulses blends into a smooth, clear voice, for the pulses come so close together that the ear cannot note the silences between them...
...same reason that a man roaring incessantly at a cliff would get back only a confusing noise. To get a clear, time-able echo, he must utter a short, sharp shout. That is exactly what radar does. It sends staccato "pulses" of electric energy, each less than a millionth of a second in length, at a rate of about 1,000 a second. Each pulse has time to make a round trip (about a thousandth of a second for a target 100 miles away), and record its message without interference from the next...