The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-27
TIME SERVICE
FOR THE NATION
How Western Union Company
Furnishes Governments
Observatory Record.
GREAT SYSTEM OF CLOCKS
MILLIONS or WATCHES ARE
DAILY REGULATED.

Ask a friend if he has time and the
chances are ten to one he'll moisten his
lips with you at the nearest bar
Ask business man If he has the time
and the business man will draw forth
his watch and give you approximately the
hour, saying in explanation that, since the
strike of the telegraphers, the time ser
vice isn't as good it ordinarily is, but
that he reckons he's about right. If YOU
ask the housewife, the wise wife will tell
You mat It is half after ten, lacking TWEEN
" minutes, but that the clock is fast
set so Intentionally in order that ToTn
may be routed out of bed in time and get
off TO his work
, The Western Uniop's time service in Salt
LAKE Is extensive. There are hundreds of
clocks in business houses and offices
placed there by the company on a rental
basis. Each day these clocks are regu-
Ia sssd by a master clock in the central
OFFICE OF the Western Union, which in
turn is regulated by the time signals from
washington, where the real thing in time
Is manufactured. Some one has discovered
On ona 5or every , four or five million years
slower, so that the time is not always
the same.
Set by Electricity.
The local clocks are controlled bv the
master clock by means of circuits and
system of magnets. When the clocks
hands wander away from the round and
clrcuitous path and attempt to lead the
pace that kills, the application of a lit
tie attraction brings them back into line
again The same process holds good when
tne hands show disposition TO lag be-
nlnd. The clocks can be electrically regu-
off time
Not many people know just exactly how
me time OF day 5 given to them. They
have a general idea, of course that the
n xyifb
There is a little time ball situated on
the top of tall government building at
the national capitol Just before noon a
crowd can always be seen gathering he
fore this building. In their hands are
held timepieces varying from the ieweled
10 the common or garden variety of dol
lar watch Exactly at noon the ball
drops, and the crowd breaks into muir
murs which include mot a second"
This little ticker could regulate the
stars i've only lost one minute in four
Just at that minute all over the Tinted
states the telegraphers are waiting ex-
pectantly. Business is at a standstill In
places where the clicking of the KEYS are
heard necessarily until the nerves of the
hearers are set on razor edge, the silence
Just before this moment is ominous The
teiegrapher knows when il is coming and
In the midst of any kind OF a telegram he
breaks 1t is the rule. For perhaps
half minute the key saunders are silent
then. "Blanx, dash, dot, dot dash"
time" snaps the ticker. Then '12 K"
in the Morse code, and in every telegraph
office in the country they know that the
time ball has dropped at Washington
Time difference is already figured out of
course and the big regulator in the main
office is simultaneously corrected If il
needs correction. With the clock at the
central office all of the other Western
Union clocks in the city are corrected.
Time for All.
From these are corrected and regulated
the time Of practically every watch in the
land. In salt Lake and in FL Paso that
same moment-12 m, Washington-the
correction is being made. Literally If not
figuratively. the country takes its time
from the Western Cnion
At about the same time this perform
ance is going on at Washington the pom
ulaCe is performing the same stunt in Iit-
Tie old New York. Down in the money
gorge there Is a skyscraper upon which
the time ball is placed.
Railroad offices figure their time from
the dropping of the time ball at Washing
ton and the Importance OF the correctness
OF the release upon the moment can read
ily be seen by the fact that train dis
patchers run their loads Of human freigh.
according TO the time given them from
Washington at Il m. If there were any
kind of correction necessary II would
block traffic.
over in Canada they have a different
system. If one is ever in Vancouver, B.
G, listen at about p. m and you will
hear the boom of a gun. That is the
Canadian government saying good Light
10 the sovereign people and the cannon is
~na Al