St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-27
WHAT is THE HOUR !?
Prof. Payne Objects to the
Furnishing Of Time by the
Western Union.
The Telegraph Company Ben
Gifted at the Expense Of
ObServatorieS.
Government Employees Are
Interested Parties in the
Peculiar Scheme.
The Time Supplied Is Said to
Be Often Far From Cor
rect.
For the Globe.

SeTNdlOTieS Ill ulucTelG pdIlS VI JiC
country have originated local time serv-
ices everywhere, and have always sup
piled railroads and cities at reasonable
charges. The local patronage thus Sc
cured has aided in building Observable
rieS and furnishing them with eXpens-
i've instruments and often contributed
to the running expenses of these educa-
tional institutions so as to make aStro-
nomical work and its publication posi-
BILE. 1t can not be said truly that OBJ
servatories have been unreaSon-
able in their charges, for, in this
section certainly, the railroads have set
their own prices, and the director of the
Carleton College observatory is pleased
to say that every railroad company,
with one exception, has always treated
this observatory, in this respect, most
considerably, intelligently and gener-
ously. And it is true now that all these
companies, with single exception,
continue their kind and helpful patron
age to this observatory, Notwithstanding
strong solicitation on the part of the
Western Union company to obtain this
local patronage for its own treasury.
TWo-I do not think it is just or right
sumo to furnish Washington time for
cities and railroads, when the time so
offered for sale is not necessarily Wash
ingtOn time, as it is represented to be.
1 will try to make this point plain. The
Telegraph company'S time system. as
managed in st. Paul and Minneapolis,
for example, is as follows: 4 second
rate clock, astronOmcally speaking, is
placed in the central offices of the
company in each of the cities. From
that clock wires are run to cheap
clocks put up in stores and Offices when
ever certain rental for them can be
secured. These cheap clocks are set by
electrical apparatus every hour by the
central clock, which is called the master
clock, because it is better than the others.
This master clock is said to be set once
a day from Washington. The agents of
the telegraph company claim that their
subscribers receive Washington time
every hour. 1t is difficult to see how
this claim can be true, for the subscriber
gets the time of the clock in
the Western Union office, that is
all, nothing more, nothing less. Some
times the subscribers will get wrong
time because the master clock is wrong.
Here is an instance: Monday morning.
March 10. the st. Paul master clock at
the Western Union Office was ten sec
onds in error. know this is true be-
cause it was compared with the obServ-
atOry signal. The error of the Western
Union time in Pittsburg the other day,
as reported to me by the director of the
Allegheny observatory, was two whole
minutes. do not think that standard
time managed in this way can be con-
tinuously trustworthy.
1t may not be out of place to indicate
briefly how the observatory time from
IL (s,1- Il
cities of st. Paul and Minneapolis for
nomical clocks 0he best of the Howard
make) were purchased, and one was
placed in the jewelry store of Messrs.
Myers u Co., of st. Paul, and the other
was set up in the iewelry store of
Messrs. Eustis Bros, Minneapolis.
These clocks were kept on time
0y the aid of two daily tele-
graphic time signals sent from
the observatory. The time Of the obser-
vatory is kept by three independent
astronomical clocks, the united cost of
which is $1,000. and these clocks are
tested about once III two days by care
full star observations. The error of the
clock at the observatory that gives the
time signals is always small. 1t is the
aim to keep it within three-tenths of
second of the true time, but sometimes
the error will be as great as half
second. but rarely more. Now. if with
the facilities of a iirst-class observatory
near at hand, it is a difficult task to
keen accurate standard time, what can
be said of the probability of trying to do
the same thing with single inferior
clock depending on one daily signal
from great distance?
Let us now see how this Washington
time by the Western Union Telegraph
gets to st. Paul, and finally to the COM
pany's subscribers. 1t is reported that
these subscribers receive Washington
time every hour. In order to do this it
would be necessary to have an indie
pendent telegraph line from Washing
ton to st. Paul. Any person who un-
derstands this business knows that no
such arrangement is now in use,
neither is it contemplated by the
company, so far as | know. That
would be pretty expensive business,
and it would be quite impossible to
maintain such service regularly be-
cause OF the great length of the line. 1t
is perfectly well understood by the tele-
graph company that line connection be-
tween Chicago and Washington may
fail at the moment demanded, and then
these master clocks are very likely to
be out of true time. What is to be done
when the main line thus fails? Why,
the time superintendent of the West
ern Union company has answered
that question in a recentintervieW pub
lished in the Chicago Tribune. He
said: 'ln that event we would
get our time from St. Louis;
it would be for few hours at most. 1t
would still be National observatory
time by the way of st. Louis" This is
the point exactly where the public are
deceived. Suppose that the line does
not work between Chicago and st. Paul
then suppose that the Carleton OBJ
servatory time will be seized, and it
will still be National observatory time
all the same by the way of NOrthfield.
1t does not seem to ME right for any
corporation to do business in this way.
Third-It is easy to see why the West
ern Union company wants to use Wash
ington time, though it destroys all other
Observatories in the country. The name
of this Washington observatory time is
excellent capital to work on as against
local Observatories, which have by hard
work for years built up local patron
age. People will say that time must be
right because it comes from Washing
ton, and earnest solicitation by the
dRCutS anu VI GlC w ii
Union company has been gong on con-
tinuously for the last two years to
get railroad and local patronage out of
the hands of the observatorics and into
the hands of the telegraph company.
Later we may say something about the
methods employed by the telegraph
company to accomplish this end. [
think the public ought to know more
about the methods used.
FOURTH do not think the way the
Western Union is doing this time bust
ness is right because it is making the
government party to one kind of retail
business in which the telegraph COM
pany is the party benefited, and educa-
tiOnal institutions are unjustly put In
hardshipas direct result.
Fifth dislike the way this business
is done, because two large corporations
are involved in it and because govern
ment employees are also interested par
ties, This fact that il should seem right