The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-12-26
Our Oliu.
How Time is Made.

The London, England, correspondent
of the Baltimore American, in recent
letter says:
Twenty-Five miles from here, in the
county of Kent, is the parliamentary
borough of Greenwich. The census folk
give it population of about 10, 900,
but it has none of the bustling activity of
an American city of the same size. Yet
it has its share of fame, but not as great
portion as it should have, considering that
it enters into the minute affairs of every
man, woman and child in the civilized
world. This is a pretty broad statement,
but it is the truth, as will speedily be
shown.
Ask any resident of Greenwich to point
out the most prominent feature of the
town, and it is ten to one that he will in
dicate the historic Greenwich Hospital
Ask him about the second most important
feature, and if he be particularly shrewd,
he may say the Royal Observatory Lo-
cally, the hospital is thing of tremend-
GUS Importance, while the observatory is
seldom thought of.
Yet the observatory is the manufacturer,
or orator, of time for the whole civilized
world. Pretty nearly every one has heard
of Greenwich time, although few may have
taken the pains to find out what it means
But Greenwich time, as it is determined
in this observatory, dominates the earth
The fnancier of Wall street is its slave;
the school boy of San Francisco must
hasten at its bidding the army officer of
Berlin is governed by it; the bells of the
great ocean liner in the middle of the At
lantic ring at its bidding; the factory
whistles Of the world blow at its call; every
single line of human endeavor is under its
domination.
is 221 YEARS OLD.
Charles H., established the observatory
in 1875, and, while he did not know much
about astronomy, he had sense enough to
appreciate the value to commerce of cor
rect standard of time, so he gave these in
structions for Flamsteed, the first astrono-
mer - Forthwith to apply himself with
the utmost care and diligence to the recti
fying of the tables of the motions of the
heavens and the places of the fixed stars,
so as to find out the so-much- desired longi-
tude of places, for the perfecting of the
art of navigation And to do all these
things the generous Charles H. gave Mr..
Flamsteed 9100 sterling, or $500, and
doubtless considered the donation tre-
mendous one.
Mr.. Flamsteed seems to have managed
the task with fair success, however, con-
sidering that he started without scientific
instruments of any kind and without an
observatory, assistants, charts, or any of
the paraphernalia of the modern astrono
mer. Moreover, he held his job for forty
five years, and only relinquished his task
when death stepped in. But he made
good start, and when his successor, the
noted Haley, assumed the task in 1920,
the Greenwich Observatory was an estab-
lished fact. Although two hundred and
twenty-one years old, the institution has
had only eight chief astronomers, which
incidentally goes to show that the study of
astronomy must be conducive to longev-
ity. Christie, the present chief, was ap-
pointed in 1881, and in all probability will
continue in the honored position for many
years.
ANCIENT AND MODERN MINGLED.
The observatory buildings are located in
the center of Greenwich Park, beautiful
piece of ground two hundred acres in ex-
tent They are curious mixture of the
ancient and the modern, and they tell the
history of the growth of the place more
clearly than mere words. Within the last
few years great additions have been made
TO the observatory under the direction of
Mr.. Christie. These include the putting
up of fresh buildings, which are just now
in the course of completion and equipment.
The visitor to the observatory, there
fore-and the visitors are extremely few,
strangers in the place causing interruption
to very careful and delicate business
finds himself confronted by the old and the
new portions, the former, with its quantity
picturesque gables and roughly tiled roofs,
forming strong contrast to the new erec-
ton, with its central tower capped by a