The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-10-04
THE TIME BALL.
Sending Out the Beats From the
National Observatory.
How q Clock is Corrected to the Hun.
dredth of Second - Correcting
Time for $4,000 Miles of
Railroad.

AS the hands of the White House
clock travelling over the dial approach
the hour OF noon. the President sitting
at his desk glances involuntarily at
them. for as the sun crosses the seventy
fifth meridian, whatever their varia-
ton during the day preceding, the
clocks hands, impelled by an ingenious
mechanical contrivance, fly sharply to
the perpendicular. And the President
knows, as they fly to their place, that
The ticks of the Executive clock are
synchronous with those of the clocks
Of the Naval Observatory. The cleo
tric impulse, for which the Presi-
dent has waited, simultaneously
causes the great ball on the top
Of the lofty pole of the Western Union
building in New York to drop, regu-
lates great clock in the Union Depot
OF Kansas City; correctly fixes the
hands of the Stock Exchange clock in
New Orleans; effects a similar result
ct hundred intermediate points, and
adjusts five hundred clocks in the Gov
ernment departments at Washington.
What would seem to require very
complex arrangement, is, in reality,
very simple one. Young. but portly
Ensign Myers, of the navy, who, for
two years past, has been the human
cause OF this widely-distributed electric
Impulse, explained his duties to me the
other day. About half an hour before
noon the tests showed that one of the
sister clocks used for distributing the
standard time was within a hundredth
Of q second of being correct. The
electric-instrument attachments were
seen to be in perfect adjustment. Mr..
Myers carelesslY chatted with me until
. few minutes of twelve, and then he
gave certain signal to the telegraph
company and became entirely en-
crossed. The seconds went by, slowly
and dominously marked by the woodeny-
metallic saunders. / was awed as this
iearfully minute measurement of the
scintillas of time went on. The fifty
ninth minute after eleven passed. I
Knew that hundreds of telegraph in
Nruments near us as well as miles
away from us, were beating in unison
with these In the room where was. l
pictured the crowds of people stand
ing In Broadway staring up at the
nme ball and holding their watches in
readiness; | knew the hum of CONVEX
satlon had ceased in a hundred offices.
LOCK, tock, tock,- it was noon, save
'nlrty seconds. Twenty beats more
we're heard; then the last warning was
gwen. The trees no longer rustled.
wee bird looked in at the open win
ow-motionless, expectant. The clock
snowed the last second of the fiftv-
ninth minute had passed. An apprecia-
pie pause; there was faint trembling
~ 1ne instruments, click of the clos
ing OF an electric switch. Thousands
y watchers knew it was twelve o'clock
:. the Nations Capitol, and the great
ciocK had begun to mark the seconds
q another day.
Inc Naval Observatory is built on
oae oi the crests of the palisades form
,ag tne northern bank of the Potomac.
= Is shortmile directly west from the
executive Mansion, and the placid pre-.
u,ncss OF Georgetown are near at hand.
me main entrance of the building looks
tne north and from 1t stretches
s'oplng greenswards and through them
sNlsss q graveled driveway. Standing
under the spreading branches of the
s's.eiy elms that sentinel the tagged
salk' the visitor may read above the
soo. the following inscription cut in
* ...s I. =.
rounded A. d. 1S42.