Morning journal and courier., 1891-09-25
REGULATING THE TIME. The Naval Observatory-A Clock That is Pretty Near Right

Ahat III ETtttJ NIGHT hISnt.
 From Smith D. Fry's Washington Lstterl
 The naval observatory is in electric cont munication with every city in this country once in twenty-four hours. Exactly as the sun crosses the seventy-ffth meridian 6 naval officer at the observatory presses a button, and the hands of certain clocks in every city instantly point to tho zenith. Five hundred clocks in the executive de- partments in Washington are in communi- cation with the observatory; the clocks in the capitol, in all of the committee rooms and in the supreme court room, and the clock in the presidents room at the white house, also, as well as other time-pieces in the executive mansion, are all regulated in like manner. The clocks of Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Boston, San Francisco and New Orleans are in the electric cir cult, and the pressure upon the button sd- lusts all Of them. It is wonderful, almost incomprenensible. and yet to the electri- clans 1t is a very simple thing.
 All Of the millions of miles of wires be- longing to the Western Union are idle for couple of minutes, just before noon, daily. At half past eleven o'clock the op- orator at the observatory commences his observations. He ascertains the condi- tion of the clocks at his own headquarters, and assures himself that they are ready to distribute time to continent. That be- ing done, he waits and watches for the second which marks high noon. Just be- fore the sun reaches the meridian the ope- rator gives signal to the Western Union, and then switches his transit clock into the telegraph circuits leading to the signal service, the fire alarm and Western Union All of the instruments in the telegraph of fees of the country are then beating in unison with that clock. Automatically, for about three minutes, the pulsations of the clock are felt by all of the wires. The president holds his watch in his hand ready to regulate it, if it is not exactly right. The clerks in the executive depart l ment are watching their standard time pieces, with watches in hand, waiting to hear the little bell ring and see the hands | fly to the hour of twelve. In Boston and | San Francisco people are watching for the l signal. On Broadway, New York, hun dreds are looking st the ball on top of the | great Western Union building, awaiting | its fall. All is quiet, and, as the hour ar 1 rives the ball falls, the clocks correct | themselves, the watchers correct their l watches and the world is ready to go on | with it's business on time. All of these | thousands of people await upon the ope-
 rator at the observatory, for they have | faith in his accuracy and constancy. They \ know that he will press the button at the | right time; and he does. But this official | does not do the actual work of transmit ting the time. He arranges everything, | puts the clock in communication with the wires, notes the time, and all that sort O | thing, but when it comes to sending the
 actual first signal, it is the great transit
 clock which does the business. The ope- | rator handles the switch key, and com pletes the circuits exactly at ten seconds | before high noon. During that brief in | terval. although the circuits are complete, | they might better be said to be ready for
 completion" for they are broken. That
 is, the wires are all at the service of the government, but the circuits will be com
 pleted automatically, when the transit
 clock cog comes into contact with a spring
 which actually completes the circuits fol
 the entire country. That is the thing
 which does the business.
 How long do you think it takes for this | signal to traverse the continentl The
 latest experiment resulted in sending the | signal from Boston to San Francisco and | back again, seven thousand miles, in half | second. That is fast enough, and nc
 amount of training will probably induce
 electricity to break its record, One-qusr
 ter of second to cross the continent
 Imagination fails to appreciate the miracle | of modern science. In that almost incon | ceivable division of time ten thousand l clocks are adjusted
 I cannot give an accurate and interesting
 description of the apparatus used in dis
 seminating time. On clear nights the ob
 servers make use of the forty thousand
 dollar telescope and watch the transit oi
 the stars. They correct the slight deyia
 tions of the great Frodshsm clock which
 stands upon a block of granite. entirel,
 disconnected from any part of the obser
 vatory building. It is immovable as tn,
 earth upon which it stands, and therefore
 not subject to any disturbances whiel
 might shake or jar it, as it methodicall!
 marks the seconds and minutes and hour
 in its diurnal rounds. They say that it i
 always correct to within the six hundredtl
 part of second. Think of that for accu I