Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-25

Before showing how these clocks are used for distributing public time, let us consider for moment the performance of watches and chronometers. I suppose that six men out of seven consider the subject of the per formance of watches their speciality; at least it has been my fortune to meet number of gentlemen with costly watches, which ran so well that they were superior to the finest as- tronomical clocks. This somewhat surpris- ing result was obtained by accepting their sim cere testimony that in six weeks their watches actually had not varied 8 second. And one gentleman informed me, with some embar- rassment, that he had detected an error of some twenty seconds in the time received from the Observatory which he had heretofore sup posed to be very exact.
 We are reminded of Charles Dudley War ner's words: t'Ws constantly compare our watches and are anxious that they should not gain or lose second. A person feels his own importance increased if he owns an accurate watch There is nothing that a man resents more than the disparagement of his. watch Ct occurs to me, by the way, that the superi- or attractiveness of women, that quality of repose and rest which the world finds in them, springs from the same amiable laisser aller that suffers their watches never to be correct. When the day comes that women's watches keep time there will be no peace in this world When two men meet, one of the most frequent interchanges of courtesies is to
 
 time is raised, as it is sure to be shortly among knot of men with us, every one pulls out his watch and comparison is made. We are, in fact, the slaves of time. and of fixed times. We think it great loss and misfor- tune to be without correct time; and if we are away from the town clock and the noon- gun, in some country place, we importune the city stranger, who appears to have good watch, for the time; or we lie in wait for the magnificent conductor of the railway express, who always has the air of getting the prompt est time from headquarters"
 Let us examine the parts of 8 watch as we have them upon the screen. (Here watch movement in full motion was projected upon the screen and MT. Waldo explained the vari- ous parts.) We are indebted to the Mechani cal Superintendent of the Waltham watch factory for this very interesting exhibition of 8 watch in motion, projected against the screen. The chronometer, either marine or pocket, is superior to any other form of watch made, if we consider only it's perform ance when it is kept in one position but it is inferior to almost any other well made form of watch if it is constantly exposed to the jar of the person in walking or running. The precision obtained in the very finest of pocket chronometers is surprising; thus, the mean daily variations in the rates of the two best chronometers exhibited by the American Watch Go. at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition were twelve and fourteen one- hundredths of second, respectively. Quoting from recent report of the Neufchatel Observ- atory on the annual competition of Swiss thermometers for prizes awarded yearly by the Observatory, the two best pocket chronometers had an average daily variation in their rates of thirteen and seventeen one-hundredths of second respectively. These rates would not discredit an astronomical clock. We have now considered the methods of determining exact time, some of the precautions necessary to keep it, and our last division of the subject will be how to distribute it without sensible error. We have been talking, in describing star transits, of sidereal or star time, and since the stars rise four minutes earlier every day, the sidereal day is four minutes shorter than our common day. Now it is common, or mean time, which we wish to distribute, so first we must convert the sidereal time into mean time.
 Let us cause the sidereal clock which Is beat ing in the room beneath us to repeat these beats upon the telegraph saunders about the room. You notice the ticks now heard each second until we get to the fifty ninth which is omitted to tell us the beginning of the next minute by it's absence. But the si- dereal time is to be transferred to mean time before 1t is ready to go out over the telegraph lines to regulate our affairs in everyday life. If we attempt to compare the sidereal clock directly with the mean time clock, we shall be liable to the error of estimating fractions of @ second by the ear but if we remember that the sidereal clock gains on the mean time clock 8 whole second in every six minutes, we can wait until tho sidereal clock beats ex- actly with the mean time clock, and then by noting the time of each clock we have a very exact means of comparing the clocks. Here we have the familiar beats of the mean time standard, beating every two seconds except at the be- ginning of the minute. You will notice, by E,-VI -kz AI,-L gradually catching up with the mean time beats, and they are now beating exactly to- gether. Let us note the times by each clock Now, you will see by the short calculation I have just made to reduce our sidereal time to the true mean time of the standard we adopt that our clock is now eight hundredths of @ second slow. An amount so small that hope none of our good friends the jewellers and railroads will take us to task about it. We shall reduce this error to nothing by alter ing the clock. Thus we have 8 mean time clock set perfectly to mean time, and by means of an electric circuit ready automatically dis tributes it's beats over as long circuit as we choose We have about the hall a miniature telegraph line with tele- graphic instruments at two or three points, which, if you please, we will imagine to be Hartford, Springfield and New York. We have only to switch the clock into this circuit with some precaution to avoid the strong battery power used, and you hear immediately the beats of the clock registering themselves at each station. In order to distinguish the beginning of the minute the last five seconds are struck. In addition to this omission in our Observatory system, the clock omits twenty seconds immediately preceding each tomary to fresort to the time ball, or the time given, both of which require considerable mechanism which shall act automatically from the clock. l think we can illustrate the first of these methods by means of the simple ball you see suspended before you. It should be eleotri- cally released the instant the second hand of the clock reaches the beginning of the minute In regard to the gun the Astronomer Royal for Scotland observes: "You would do we'll, if you can, to pull the trigger of time-gun, for there are no means under heaven equal to gun for speaking to human nature and ob- iging it to attend.'
 The gun we have extemporized will be dis charged at the commencement of the next minute. cannot speak to you tonight of the many other methods communicating the time by means of electric clocks or the display of the time regulated from the Observatory. Nor can we speak of the plans of our Obssrva- tory for the encouragement of a higher ex-' celien in the great and growing horologi- cal industries of our country. We have left untouched great divisions in the art of measuring and disseminating time, but a re- gard for the subject of my lecture reminds me that must close. Much of the pleasure in the experiments of the evening is due to the kind ness of Prof. Lyman in arranging some of our experiments, and to MT. William Beebe I thank you for your patient attention.
 Funeral Of Maggie Pearl.
 The funeral services over the remains of Maggie Pearl, the variety actress, who died