The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-10

urlng the space between the marks on
the cylinder with a prepared graduated
scale which shows the difference be-
tween the two beats to hundredths of
a second. The operator doing this ac-
CELEBRATES or retards the clock to be
regulated by touching the pendulum
with his finger till the space measur-
ed shows that the fractional difference
is just nine hundredths of a second.
Then the clock is ready for the days
work.
All this takes place not too long be-
fore the noon hour, so as to give the
clock little time TO lose or gain. There
is sounder on top of the clock which
steadily ticks off the seconds loud
enough to be heard IN the adjoining
room. AT three and quarter minutes
before noon approximately the big
clock is switched into the telegraph
circuit.
The Signal Clock.
This signal clock has a toothed
wheel directly behind the wheel which
marks the seconds. The wheel is divid-
ed into sixty spaces. but the tooth rep
resenting the twenty-ninth second Is
missing, and so are those representing
the thirty fifth, fifty-sixth, fifty-sev-
enth, fifty eighth and fifty-ninth sec
onds. AS this wheel revolves the teeth
COIIl6 III COHldCI MulH Lie
closing the circuit and causing the
sounder to respond. The twenty ninth
signal drops out, and that intermis-
sion indicates the approach of the
half minute. In the same way an in
PERMISSION of five beats indicates the
approach of the end of the minute.
This arbitrary arrangement is designed
to warn operators all over the country
when they cut in at just what point
A. ~ afN~ of
the final signal there will be lapse
of twenty seconds. This is brought
about by the action of the operator at
the observatory, and is pot automatic
like the other intermissions. 1t is pro-
duced by the operator moving the
switch key, which throws out of the
circuit the wheel marking the seconds
and throws into circuit the wheel that
marks the minutes. If an operator
comes in on the circuit and the first
intermission he notes is a single Sec
ond, he knows that he has come in on
the half minute. If the intermission is
five second, he knows he has come in
just before the minute, but not the
final minute. II he counts more than
five seconds, he knows that it is the
final intermission before the noon hour,
and he acts accordingly.
Dropping the Time Ball.
What this operator and what all OPP
orators have to do in regulating the
time ball is to turn a switch between
the sounding of the fortieth second
and the signal which marks the final
minute. AS soon as the operator has
counted more than five seconds In the
intermission he knows that the next
signal will make the exact hour of
noon. The time ball has been hoisted
to it's position at the top of the pole
These polls are in conspicuous places
| in every large city in the United
| States, usually on top of the Western
Union Telegraph building. The ball
| is a mechanical device by which a
single impulse sent over the wire when
the time ball is in circuit pulls the
trigger and releases the ball so that
it falls to the bottom of the pole. In
the intermission which he knows pre-
cedes the final signal, the operator
throws the switch, and in this way all
the time balls in the country are
brought into the circuit with the Nav
al Observatory.
When Noon Arrives.
In the last Tooth of the last second
of the fifty-ninth minute of the elev-
enth hour at Washington the tooth
of the big minute wheel touches the
spring which closes the circuit, and
simultaneously the time balls all over
| the country drop. When l say stimuli
taneously, of course l make no al
| lowance for the fraction of a second
during which the electric impulse is
going out from Washington. Such ar
| impulse has been sent from Washing
| ton to San Francisco in one-fifth OF
a second.
The dropping of the time ball sets
| the clocks on Government Island, one
of the military posts at New York
through the intermediary of bugle
call. Just before noon of each day
two enlisted men are stationed at a
! point commanding view of the tow
er of the Western Union building
| One of these is a signalman, with a
powerful field glass. The other is the
post bugler. The signalman motions
| to the bugler at the moment of the
time balls drop, and the bugler sounds
| the call for noon. All over the island
watches and clocks are adjusted, and
though they do not achieve correct
time to that fraction of second which
marks the electrically controlled clock
they become accurate enough for al
military purposes.
The clock regulating is done by an
other piece of mechanism. The same
signal which drops the time balls
throws a lever in the thousands OF
clocks all over the country. This lever
strikes a cam, which governs the Sec
ond. minute and hour hands. and with
one motion the lever throws these
hands to the perpendicular, making the
| clock mark the exact hour, minute anc
second of noon.