| Year | Scientist(s) | Method / Equipment | Timing Device Used | Measured Speed of Light (km/s) | Reported Error / Uncertainty | Notes |
|---|
| 1676 | Ole Rømer | Astronomical observation of eclipses of Jupiter’s moon Io | Mechanical astronomical clocks (early pendulum clocks) | ~214,000–220,000 | Very large (~−27% error vs modern value) | First evidence light travels at finite speed. |
| 1726 | James Bradley | Stellar aberration measurements using telescope | Precision pendulum clocks and astronomical timing | ~301,000 | ~0.4% error | Used Earth’s orbital motion instead of time-of-flight experiment. |
| 1849 | Armand Fizeau | Toothed-wheel apparatus with distant mirror (~8 km) | Mechanical chronometer / rotating wheel frequency as timer | ~315,000 | ~+5% error | First terrestrial measurement of light speed. |
| 1862 | Léon Foucault | Rotating mirror optical apparatus | Mechanical rotation rate timing (calibrated chronometers) | 298,000 | ±500 km/s | Demonstrated light slower in water than air. |
| 1879 | Albert A. Michelson | Improved rotating mirror system | Precision mechanical chronometers measuring rotation speed | 299,910 | ±50 km/s | Beginning of modern precision optical experiments. |
| 1907 | Rosa & Dorsey | Electrical measurement from electromagnetic constants | Electrical oscillation timing with precision galvanometers and chronometers | 299,788 | ±30 km/s | Indirect determination from EM constants. |
| 1926 | Albert A. Michelson | Long baseline rotating mirror experiment (Mount Wilson) | Highly accurate electromechanical timing systems | 299,796 | ±4 km/s | One of the most precise pre-WWII optical measurements. |
| 1947 | Louis Essen & A. C. Gordon-Smith | Microwave cavity resonator experiment | Quartz crystal oscillators (early electronic precision clocks) | 299,792 | ±3 km/s | Radar technology improved timing accuracy greatly. |
| 1958 | K. D. Froome | Microwave interferometer / radio frequency measurement | Stabilized quartz frequency standards | 299,792.5 | ±0.1 km/s | Transition toward frequency-based measurements. |
| 1972 | Evenson et al. | Laser interferometry measuring wavelength and frequency | Atomic clocks (cesium standard) | 299,792.4574 | ±0.001 km/s | Extremely precise laser frequency measurement. |
| 1983 | International Committee on Weights and Measures | Definition via SI metre (distance defined from light travel time) | Atomic clocks defining the second | 299,792.458 (exact) | No error (definition) | Speed of light fixed constant in SI system. |