The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-10
WHEN NOON ARRIVES.
,,Ny WORD Is SENT OUT FROM
THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY.

THE NAVAL ObSEht
setting the Country's CIocks-In-
comments of Wonderful Delicacy
and Precision-Dropping the Time
Balls.
From the Washington Star.
There are 10000 clocks set by the
,cvernment every day when the noon
-FOUR strikes in Washington. In every
large city throughout the United States
time balls at the same minute indicate
the time to hundreds watching for
heir fall, and hundreds of watches are
reguIated to correspond with the sig
nal This time service comes from the
Naval Observatory in Washington, and
its original design was to furnish ma
rjners at Aseaboard cities with the
means of regulating their chronome-
ters Like a great many other govern
ment institutions, it has strayed from
its original purposes. and now it serves
another or more general usefulness.
There is a strong national feeling
against paternalism in the United
states, but there are many small ways
in which paternalism fourishes with
cut hindrance.
This time service is ostensibly free;
actually it is not free, but costs the
owner of each clock SIS a year. The
government furnishes the signal free,
hut the government does not deliver it.
If you want to string a wire to the Ma
val Observatory from your office in
New York or Chicago, or San Fran
cisco, the Navy Department will fur.
nish you the signal every day without
money and without, price. But the
stringing of wires is costly and attend
ed with great difficulties. So you neces-
sarily turn to the telegraph company,
with it's $4,000 miles of wire; and this
company puts wire into your office
and connects 1t with its great system
which has a wire running to the OBJ
servatory. No one knows what the
company receives from its time service
but reckoned on a basis of SIS clock
each year, and 10000 clocks, the
amount should be more than a million
dollars. The sum it receives for sus!
pending all business on it's wires from
11:57 to IL o'clock, Washington time
each day, and giving the operator at
the Naval Observatory full control of
them. Actually the operator there does
not send the Signal-it is sent automat-
ically by a remarkable clock-and 50
far as the time balls are concerned
the preliminary work is done by a man
In charge of each, who hoists 1t to po-
sition and throws its machinery into
the circuit just before the final signal
goes out
At the Naval Observatory.
The naval observatory contains a
great many fine instruments. It holds
Ao@ g..
scope in the United States-the 26-inch
Clark equatorial-which cost SAG, 200,
and was erected in 1873. The Lick tel
escope in California, 36-inch, soon took
from the government the distinction of
owning the greatest telescope, and that
in a few years was exceeded by the
Yerkes telescope, 40 inches. With the
Clark telescope Prof. Hall discovered
the satellites of Mars, and there are
other discoveries to its credit in astro-
nomical history.
The big telescope has nothing to do
with the time signal. The telescope
used in the business of measuring time
is the transit instrument, which is
much smaller. Here, on each clear
night, an observer watches the move
ment of the stars, and by their aid
corrects the big Frodsham clock which
stands in the signal room. In the max
spider plays an important part.
Threads of cobwebs are not only fine,
but wonderfully strong for the fineness.
They also possess a remarkable stabil-
ity not being affected by moisture and
neither expanding nor contracting with
changes in the. temperature. These
threads are used to make cross lines
extending at right angles across the
field of view, so as to divide it into
INnr NH
nose 1t is found that spiders webs
gathered near Washington are more eff
fcacious than those which can be OBJ
tanned elsewhere. Some years ago the
directors of the observatory sent to
China for webs, thinking that the large
spiders of that country would produce
an especially desirable web. But 1t was
found that in their peculiar field the
American spiders were superior TO the
foreign-another triumph for home in
dustries. The Washington spider webs
are obtained by expectations sent out
in June of each year. They collect
from barns and fences the cocoons OF
big turtle back" spiders. Each cocoon
is wound with a single filament, and
this is reeled off and used to divide
the telescopes field of view. BY their
aid the observer measures the move
ments of the stars and determines ex-
dcLly the LlIIle. lHC us SiOStA -
lated to the minutest measurable
fraction of a second and left to feel
its measured way through the hours
till morning. 1t is not affected by any
of the movements that jar tall build
ings and shake smaller one, for 1t is
secure in deep sunk pedestal or gran
lite.
Regulating ChronOmeters.
All through the signal room, as the
day observer enters. there is a buzz
as of grasshoppers in the field on
warm summer day. This is the voice
of the chronometers, which MI long
wooden cases. All the navys chrono-
meters are sent here to be reguiateu.
Opposite the Frodsham clock are two
less costly timepieces, which contain
the mechanism for sending out the time
signal. These timepieces cost between
S7OO and $500 a piece. There IS, by the
way. another clock in the observatory
for which Congress paid $4,000. 1t was
invented by DIR. John Locke, OF On
cinnati, in 1S49, and was the f1rst APP
paratus for transmitting time auto
matically. 1t is running now, out lls
only use is to measure time.
The Frodsham clock is set Tor slde,
real time. Between this and STANDARD
Eastern time there is difference OF
eight minutes 1909 seconds. The otnel
clocks. when they are regulated pS
the Frodsham, must be mace 10 Vai
just minutes 1903 seconds from IL
This is accomplished by an ingenious
recording device. A cylinder stanolne
H.