The Colfax chronicle., 1888-11-03
THE TIME BALL.
Sending Out the Beats From the
National Observatory.
How = Clock Is Corrected to tho 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-
tion 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
trio 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
at Kansas City; correctly fixes the
hands of the Stock Exchange clock in
New Orleans; effects a similar result
at a 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, a
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 fnn dis4.isa,finu the
OF a second OF being correct. The
electric-instrument attachments were
seen to be in perfect adjustment. Mr..
Myers carelesslv chatted with me until
q 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 ominously marked by the woodeny-
metallic saunders. was awed as this
fearfully minute measurement of the
scintillas of time went on. The fifty
ninth minute after eleven passed. /
knew that hundreds of telegraph in
struments near us as well as miles
away from us, were beating in unison
with these in the room where was. /
pictured the crowds of people stand
Ing in broadway staring up at the
time bail and holding their watches in
readiness; knew the hum of CONVEX
sation had ceased in hundred Offices.
Tock, tock. tOck,-- it was noon, save
thirty seconds. Twenty beats more
were heard; then the last warning was
given. The trees no longer rustled.
A wee bird looked in at the open win
dow-motionless, expectant. The clock
showed the last second of the fifty-
ninth minute had passed. An apprecia-
BILE pause; there was faint trembling
OF the instruments, click of the clos
ing OF an electric switch. Thousands
OF watchers knew it was twelve o'clock
at the Nations Capitol. and the great
clock had begun to mark the seconds
OF another day.
The Naval Observatory is built on
one of the crests of the palisades form.
ing the northern bank of the Potomac.
1t is shortmile directly west from the
Executive Mansion. and the placid pre-
cincts OF Georgetown are near at hand.
The main entrance of the building looks
TO the north and from it stretches
sioping green swards and through them
twists a graveled driveway. Standing
under the spreading branches of the
stately elms that sentinel the tagged
walk, the visitor may read above the
door the following inscription cut in
marble:
''''sss....:
Founded A. D. isla.