The daily gazette., 1883-11-19
THE NEW STANDARD.
HOW 1T WENT INTO EFFECT
YESTERDAY.
CHANGING TIME BY TELEGRAPH
Now York People Eagerly ResettIng Their
Watches by the Western Union Time
BaIl-In Other Places

The new standard of time went into effect
all over the country at noon, yesterday, but
in Wilmington the difference was slight that
no radical change was necessary, and but
few people were curious enough to even
move their time pieces forward the required
40 seconds. In other places, however, tie
change was moro radical. fe4
The Philadelphia Record says: The change
was announced 10 the l 500 operators on the
Pennsylvania Railroad and its branches
from Allegheny, and the 300 electrical KEY
manipulators of the Reading Railroad were
given the signal from Reading. Not Jar
or break occurred on either road while 1t
was being transmitted over the wires. At
about 11.30 O'Clock the chief operator at
Pittsburg began calling up the division
chiefs, who In turn called up the offices
under their direction. At 11.57 the words
"Time, time, Time," were sent over the
thousands of miles Of wire, and then the
seconds were marked so times consecutivei
A pause Of 10 seconds followed. At 1I.5s
the second beats were resumed and the
short, sharp ''tick" was repeated SO times
more.
For period of 20 seconds silence was pre-
served all over the vast circuit. At the 10th
second quick, sharp ''click" proclaimed
the new noon hour, and 10000 watches and
clocks we're at once reset all over the road to
conform with the new standard.
On the Reading a similar system OF sig
mails was employed and the electric message
was wired to all points. N3
In consequence OF the change new time
tables have been issued for the New York,
Pittsburg aud Baltimore Central divisions
of the Pennsylvania railroad and on the
Reading.
Quite crowd assembled about noon to see
the State House clock reset by WE. Harpur,
who pushed the hands forward 40 seconds.
The change was SO slight that it was not
perceptible.
rNew York World.l
At noon yesterday old Father Time was
deliberately cheated out OF three minutes,
tiity-eight and one-half seconds. It was
made an event of unusual importance in
this city. Everybody who possessed watch
was anxious to locate himself where he
could be in readiness to start his time piece
In conformity with the new schedule. As
early as l1.30 o'clock people began to assem-
BILE In the vicinity of the Western Union
Building and with heads thrown back
watched patiently for the upward move
ment of the ball which at noon was to give
to the people of New York new time. As
the minutes came and went the number Of
people on the sidewalks increased and con-
siderable speculation was INDUCED in re-
gar ling the likelihood of the time-ball fall
ing too soon or too late and thereby setting
all New York wrong.
On the top of the Western Union Build
ing, w. F. Allen, Secretary of the Railroad
Time Convention, with his wife and two
children, stood beside James Hamblet, Gen
eral superintendent of the lime Telegraph
Company, and Manager of the Western
Union Time Servi,e. They were waiting
for the electric click which would drop the
ball.
The beats of the clock at Washington
were received regularly up to ten s.eonds
before noon. There was nervous beating
of hearts as the chief operator received the
noon click and the ball dropped. Fully 8, 900
people in the streets looked at their watches.
The ball had dropped exactly three minutes
fity-eight and thirty eight-one- -hundredths
or twelve-one- hundredths minutes less than
the time of the seventy fifth meridian.