Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-25
LOCAL NEWS.
Sheffield Scientific School.

N~AN~
 Sheffield Scientific School.
 The Annual Lectures-PrOf. Waldo, of
 the HOrOlOgicaI Department, on
 ssTelling the Times'-A Large and
 Highly Interested Audfence-Various
 Interesting and Novel Features.
 Prof. Waldo, of Yale, astronomer in charge of the Astrological Bureau, Winchester Ob- ssrvatory, delivered last evening, at North SLeineld Hall, the sixth lecture in the annual course to mechanics, given by the Sheffield Scientific School. The commodious hall was completely filled and much interest was evinced. Many of the most noted professors of the college and their ladies were present. Quite formidable apparatus greeted the eye immediately upon entering, situated near the door. Two large receivers, suggestive to the popular mind of the copper boilers of a first class soda fountain, lay underneath the ma chine proper, suggestive of a possible ex- plosiop, except that perfect serenity pervaded the skilled operator, who stood at his post awaiting the signals for displaying the objects upon the screen at the appropriate moment. On the stage beside LQ6 TeRuluk oS6A bLOOd tAo AAO SOASoNORS given to the Bureau by Tax Collector Hill house of this city, and two tall cased clocks wagged their pendulums, if anything more gravely and methodically than usual, as if conscious that the value of correct time was to be demonstrated and vindicated. To the right were sundry evidences that the aid of electricity was to be invoked in honor of the md iho fo fho ri of communicating correct time made apparent. An extemporized timsball of pasteboard lay at the bottom of a miniature flag staff, ready to figure at the appropropriate time, after having been duly elevated in order that it might drop. With all these and other appliances the audience was prepared for something novel and enter taining as well As instructive and they were we'll rewarded, both in the high character ot the lecture, which was foretold by the reputa- tion of the speaker, and in the Illustrative treats afforded The display upon the screen of the movements of a watch in motion, with the motion plainly apparent; the dropping of the time ball, and the firing of the noon gun in this case a pistol-both by electricity, with dramatic pauses of expectancy, and vari- ous other episodes were highly interesting features of the evenings excellent entertain ment. The evening was passed very pleas antly, and no doubt very profitably, judging from the close attention bestowed. The lec ture was as follows:
 I feel very much as though this occasion had been contrived as polite means of call ing the Observatory people to account for the idoo nf ohlioinO Q ifArarV and versity town to keep strict regard for time. Exact time belongs to railroads, to express companies, to science. The generous life of literary effort forbids the cramping influences of day with an arbitrary twelve o'clock. The soul of art rebels against clock which does not err, or watch which counts the eighty six thousand four hundred seconds of day with precision. The gentle and persuasive owners of those wonderful pieces of ornamen- tation and bad time-keeping qualities ladies' watches-feel aggrieved at any precision which their little jewels cannot comprehend It is to show you how excellent are our mo tives, how precise our results, how great are the benefits, that we shall address ourselves this evening.
 The time-balls dropped from their masts at Deal, at Cape Town, and from the magnih- cent head of Sydney harbor, are perhaps fa- miliar to you, and it will be to you not an unin- structive thought that even in distant Brit 1Bn COlOQ1eb LuoT6 04lSt6 IAlb dtbou- tion to the needs of every ship, domestic or foreign, which enters their ports. You will reflect, doubtless, that until within quite re- gently this kindness has not been rsciprocated in one American seaport And you will be gratifed to know that the Western Union Telegraph Company now display, at five min- utes of twelve, ball at the top of a mast placed on the highest pinnacle of their Broad way building in New York and that precise ly at noon, as indicated from tho U. s. Naval Observatory, Washington, it falls from it's conspicuous position. The query of the Cam bridge poet rises on your lips
 f'Wall neighbor tell us wuts turned up thets new? You're Jounger'n be,-nigher Boston tu;
 An down to Boston, ef you take their shoEin,'
 Wut they don't know ain't hardlywuth the knowin,' There's sunthin' goin' oh, know"
 That the Harvard Observatory drops its sig nal of Boston noon, and tbat there is now an effort to have time-balls at the important ports of our coast. have mentioned the time-bal first, because it has secured for itself 8 wide recognition as the simplest way of annouu- cing an arbitrary instant of time. But like the newspaper dropped at the door, or the water which flows upon turning the faucet, the simple result attained in the dropping of 8 time ball is the outgrowth of the most refined principles of mechanism, and is the product of skillful assiduity of the astronomer. It Is our province now to ask these questions, "Where do we get and how
 
 with force at the moment when we stand looking alternately at the face of our watch and the rear platform of departing train ; or when the Gold Stock Exchange closes one minute before we thought it would or when some majestic steamer wrecks in fog on our coast because her chronometers are at fault
 We all know that whatever may be the mer- it's of our sun in other respects, he is not 8 very accurate marker of the length of day. Thus, Feb. 10th, he is fifteen minutes slow of any respectable clock, and then he catches up until the middle of May, when he is four min utes fast. July 18th, again, he is six minutes slow, and November 2d he crosses the merid- ian sixteen minutes before twelve. From time immemorial, however, the sun has mark ed the beginning of the day;s labor, and in or der to overcome the difficulties in measuring the length of day, caused by the suns irreg- ularity, astronomers imagine that there exists in the heavens afictitious sun and that this sun indicates the clock time. shall point out to you later some difficulties in the way of ex- actly determining our time from the sun. But while he is seldom used in the Observatory for such purpose, an exact knowledge of his motion, and some exact way of measuring his position, is of the utmost importance to the navigators; and I suppose it iS to them We owe the widespread opinion that from obser- vations of the sun all astronomers determine the time.
 Brilliant even through haze, easily ob- served even when the ships deck is rolling, the navigator readily brings the reflected sun and the horizon in contact with the tele- scope of his sextant. From his tables, with an approximate knowledge of his latitude, he will tell you at just what time the sun will reach a certain altitude, and this will afford him a means of detecting the error of his chro- nometer.
 But we are chiefly to concern themselves tonight with the instruments used in fixed observatories for determining time. You are aware that the stars are located on the celes- tial sphere by system of co ordinates, closely resembling our terrestrial ones of latitude and longitude. These are called Declination and Right Ascension. Now Destinations the astronomer measures with carefully gradua ted circleg, but in measuring Right Ascensions the astronomer fixes his instrument in one plane, and notes by his clock how long after one star passes this plane another follows it. But he must be able to measure this interval of time with degree of accuracy which cor responds to the accuracy reached with the graduated circle. Hence the Observatory con- tinues to be recognized critic of the perform ance of time-pieces, for nowhere else in the arts or sciences is the exact measurement of considerable intervals of time of such vital importance. The instrument almost univer- sally used in determining the time is the Azk- houo