The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-20
THE CORRECT TINE.
How II Is Sent Through the Country
by Wire.

Since he removed ms paraphernalia to
the quarters in the new naval observatory
building, Uncle Sam continues his study
of Father Times movements with even a
closer scrutiny. Within a very small
space in the new naval observatory there
is a Continuance, invented by one of the
districts own citizens, which has control
of all chronometers east of Denver, and
from here, every day at noon, by the
messing of an electric button, a throb
which sets the hands of these time tell
ers in their correct position is sent
throughout this whole expanse of terri
tory. On Mare Island, the navy yard of
San Francisco, another observatory is
located, which performs .he same duties
for the territory west of Denver but
when the noon signal is sounded in the
eastern section it is only O'Clock at the
station on the shores of the Pacific.
In the new observatory the computing
Instruments are more TO be depended
upon than they were when located at the
old quarters on Twenty-fourth street,
when the low location and surrounding
trees INSTRUCTED vision, and where the
fogs arising from the river increased the
refraction of light. But now that spot
has been chosen on the high ground just
north of Georgetown, away from these
evil associations, it is not to be doubted
that Prof. Gardner, the maker of our
time service, will continue to add few
more chapters to his wonderful inven-
tons, if they are not now at perfection.
All the clocks and other instruments
used for calculating the revolutions of
the earth are now mounted upon granite
piers, whose foundations extend far down
into the ground, that no motion of the
al, ha hnaf of -
the pendulums millionth of a second.
In order that no change of temperature
in the room may be occasioued by
draught of air, the spaces between these
piers and the floors are filled with cotton
batting. So nothing but an earthquake
can keep us from having our full supply
of time every day, for even though the
clocks themselves give out, each one
of them has an alternate, which will do
the work while the other takes a vaca-
ton and recuperates, under the surgical
care of Lieut. Heilner, who has charge
of the time service.
DAY OF THE STARS.
In a small metallic building, which is
sliced in half. to admit of view of the
meridian line crossing the zenith, is to be
seen a large stationary transit telescope,
through which an astronomer every clear
night observes the stars which cross the
line Upon miniature railroad track,
which is directly under the ''slice" in the
building, rolls a couch on wheels, upon
which the observer lays down and makes
himself comfortable, while he is reading
his answers in the stars. The astronomer
has a book, which is time table OF the
stars, containing schedule of their ar
rivals at the meridian, on each respective
night, which has been determined from
the computations of all of the great as
+roDOrnarc from DtOlaunu down. 70 ba
present day. Close by the telescope
stands a veteran clock of the 'grandfa-
Tiers stock, which is corrected to give
the exact time of the stars every time an
observation is made. But since each one
of the stars appears upon the meridian
once every twenty-three hours, tifUy-six
minutes and five seconds, the day of the
stars is shorter, by three minutes and
fifty-fve seconds than the mean day,
which has twenty-fopr even hours, for
convenience sake.
To test the correctness of this clock it
is connected, in circuit, with a chrono-
graph, consisting of cylinder, revolving
by electricity, upon which spiral line is
made by a fountain pen, which gives a
hitch every second. This simple machine
discIoses. an error in the beat of the clock,
when the notches in this line do not
measure certain distance apart by
skillfully graduated scale. or when sixty
of them will not cover the circumference
of the cylinder exactly. and cause the
next row of notches TO coincide with those
adjacent. Thus the exact time of the
stars is taken and recorded, but the hours
must go through another process before
the mean time is manufactured from this
raw material
MEAN AND sIDERAL TIME.
The sideral day must first be made into
A1n1 Nf 4hn
NAUTICAL computation has been tabulated,
which will tell what time it is by the cor
rect mean clock when the sideral clock
gives a certain hour, For instance, at
noon on the day of the writer's visit to
the observatory the sideral clock recorded
the hour as few minutes OF 2 But on
March % the two clocks always agree,
the stars having made an even difference
In days in its faster pace.
In a separate room is to be seen another
old clock, which looks as though it might
be a relation of the other, although each
has different tale to tell, The one is as
ISOLATED with the stars above, while the
other is the common servant of the earth
beneath. This ticker is known as the
clock of precision, because it is always
theoretically correct in the scope OF the
mean hour. Many little scales of various
denominations may be seen ioyfuly
swinging to and fro in its pendulum, TO
alter its beat when IL gets out of its true
proportion with the stars. This is also
connected with a chronograph, which
tests its beats closer than can the ear or
the eye. 1t is never stopped or corrected
oy the moving of its hands, which would
lnjure its entire future career, but this
method Of adding weights to the pendu-
lum, and taking them off, keeps vibra-
ton almost correct, although there are
continual external forces which make it
differ with the normal.
THE MONDAY HOUR.
third clock, which is the one from
which the standard time is directly taken,
is undergoing continual course of correy-
ZION IN order that when the great noon
hour at last arrives it will be able to send
In an alarm all over this half Of the
country upon the termination of the mil
Honth millionth of the last second in the
eleventh hour. This and the clock of
precision are connected with several
saunders, which fail to sound whenever
the two o'clocks do not exactly whisper
the stroke of the second together. But
py noon each day this wayward clock has
oeen mastered by the patient hand of its
Keeper, and is always unfailing at the
proper moment in beating the last ten
seconds in the morning correctly and in
nlVtlng the nail on the head exactly at