The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-10-04


last break in the beating twenty dis
tinct impulses. When the beating
stops on the twentieth they know that
the next impulse will mark the close
of the tifty-ninth minute of the eleventh
hour. In response to this signal the
operator in charge of the time-ball
on the Western Union Building in
New York throws switch which
brings into circuit the machinery which
controls the ball. The adjustment of
that machinery is such that single
impulse will release the ball. AtWood's
Hall. Mass, at Newport, R. l., at New
| Orleans, Savannah, Baltimore. Phila-
eelphia, Hampton Roads and Washing
ton, the operators in charge of the
| time-balls switch them into the circuit
For this brief ten seconds the Naval
| Observatory has control of the Western
| Union wires and they are absolutely
| idle. The minute wheel turns on it's
pinion. As the last hundredth of the
last second of the the fifty-ninth minute
of the eleventh hour expires, the
wheels single tooth comes in contact
with the spring In the instant of
that contact the circuit is closed, with
the swiftness of lightning bottled
to do mems bidding the impulse beats
over the wire. In that instant, re-
sponsive to it, the time-balls drop, the
bells in hundreds of spots, far and near,
ring out and hundreds of clocks in this
city and hundreds of more at distant
points change their Indication auto
matically, SO that hour, minute and
second hand alike point to exactly high
noon. How little time is lost in trans
mission may be judged from the fact
that signal was sent from Boston to
San Francisco and back 900 miles
in half a second.
The extent of the distribution of
time from observatories in this country
may be seen from the fact that 124, 600
miles of railway are thus supplied
$4,000 from the naval observatory
| here, $4,000 from Allegheny, Pa, 22,-
600 from ST. Louis and $4,000 miles by
nineteen other observatories, two of
which are in Canada. The system used
by other observatories differ in some
of It's minor details from that adopted
here.
Experiments in the distribution of
time have been in progress for a great
many years. DR.. John Locke, of Gin
cinnati. in 1849 devised the first ap-
paratus for transmitting time signals
automatically. Congress paid him
$4,000 for a clock, which to this day
stands in the Naval Observatory. It's
only duty now, though, is that Of
common time-piece.
/ The latest phase of scientific devel-
opment in this direction is the inven-
tion of Mr.. Gardner, the electrician of
the observatory 1t is the automatic
clock which hangs in the White House
and in the rooms of the various de-
partments of the government. This
clock being placed on the time circuit
as are the time balls, is corrected auto
matically. The same impulse which
drops the time ball pushes down d
lever in each of these clocks. The
lever striking the cam which controls
the hour, minute and second hand,
throws them back to the perpendicular
where they mark the exact hour of
twelve o'clock. Thus at noon of each
day five hundred clocks in the public
departments are made automatically
to coincide with the big time-piece at
the Naval Observatory.
Mr.. Gardner, who had just returned
from the Cincinnati exhibition, where
he had been arranging the clock con-
nection with Washington, referred to
the awkwardness of the different times
kept in different Western cities.
Think of there being two or three
twelve o'clocks in one city," he said.
'sTake Pittsburgh, for instance, the
point where Eastern standard time
ends and Central standard begins. One
man can claim that it is eleven o'clock,
another that it is only ten, while the
chap that carries the real local time OF
the city can assert that neither of the
other fellows is right. This. think
ought not to be. There should be but
one time in each city. The railroads, ol
course, must note the difference, but
the citizen need not be worried. ~
, Washington Cor. Indianapolis journal
/, Why He Stole Again.
sxvo,, ,,-,,,,5x ,,,1 l,,ft,,, 80 ,ho,,% 49,