The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1892-09-03
the alarm bells in all Of the fire-

former the lar bells in all OF the IRE
engine houses in the city are struck.
the horses unhitched and the doors
thrown open. all by a single spark Of
electricity, just as is done when IN
alarm of fire is sent in; for the noon
signal TO the engine houses is used for
the additional purpose Of striking the
alarm for the daily practice Of the FIRE
department. The observatory clock
line connects with the several hundred
clocks in the government offices and
buildings, including the white house
and the capitol, and sets them to cor
rect time at noon by means Of a simple
mechanical device in each clock, oper-
ated by electricity; so that, whether a
clock loses o. gains during the twenty
! four hours, its hour and minute hands
, spring to twelve. and Its second hand
! to sixty.
A few minutes before noon the trans
f, mitter is compared with the standard
clock, and if it is not found to be exact
~ eight minutes, twelve seconds and
nine one-hundredths of a second ahead
of the standard clock THAT being the
exact difference between Washington
and standard time) it is set right by
making it gain or lose, as the ease may
require, by quickening or retarding the
pendulum with a gentle touch of the
finger.
At fifty-six minutes and forty-fve
seconds after eleven, everything being
in readiness, a switch is turned on, and
| tho na~f instant tho haasS of tho MN.
dulum begin to tick the seconds or the
telegraph instruments in the Washing
ton and New York telegraph offices.
At this signal all work on the telegraph
lines is at once suspended, and connec-
tions made from one office to another,
from town to town, and from state TO
state, until the tick, tick of the clock
at Washington is heard in the telegraph
office of every railroad station, town
and city in the United States.
Every twenty-ninth tick is omitted,
because there is no signal goes ont at
the twenty-ninth second; so that a
pause of a second signifies that the next
click of the instrument will mark half
a minute, or thirty seconds, and the
first click, after a pause of five seconds,
indicates the beginning of a minute, rs
the ticks corresponding to the fifty.
fifth. fifty-sixth, ~ffty-seventh, fifty
eighth and fifty-ninth seconds are
omitted. In order to distinguish the
last minute, and afford time for maxi
ing connections with time balls, clocks,
ETC.. the signals stop ut the fftieth sec
ond, or ten seconds before twelve,
Then, precisely at noon, the instant
the sun crosses the seventy-fifth
meridian, the signal is flashed over the
wires, there is a single throb from one
end of the land to the other. the tele-
graph instruments from Maine to Cali
fornia give a final click, the time-ball
on the building of the state. war and
navy departments drops. and, stimuli
%taneously with it time-balls drop at
Havana, Cuba, and at all the promi-
nent sea ports from Boston to New
Orleans, those on the Pacific coast
being operated by a branch observa-
tory in California, the hands of every
government clock point to twelve,
while the f%irc-alarm bells throughout
the city of Washington sound forth
their dangerous announcement of
noon, and the whole nation is informed
of the correct standard time.-Clifford
Howard, in Ladies' Home Journal.