The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-26

for example, can reckon her position
by comparing her clock with the wire
less from Washington A hundredth of
a second of error might be Just enough
to cause her TO run upon a rending reef
in coralstudded ocean through mis-.
calculation, and so might she be de-
stroyed.
so the Naval observatory was created
for the purpose of regulating the chro-
nometers of ships. Soon it was found
that there was a demand from other
sources for exact time. Official Wash.
lngton saw no reason why its watches
should not be right in that the govern
ment had on tap this hairbreadth exact
ness OF time. a ball was rugged up on
top of the State, War and Navy build
ing and connected with the clock in the
observatory in such way that it would
be dropped by electricity at the exact
hour of noon. II was a good idea, ana
the people of the national capital were
enthusiastic over it. In all the years
it has been in operation the enthu-
siasm has not waned. Each day as the
hour approaches, office windows. street
corners, every available space that gives
view of the time ball is likely to he
filled by people with watches in their
hands, waiting for the ball 20 fall.
Time Balls Fall
/ New York. Boston, New Orleans aud
sixteen other points Of Importance heard
OF the innovation and dickered with the
government for an arrangement by
which they might acquire time balls
and get this very accurate setting of
their clocks. The stations were estab.
lshed and the balls are dropped every
day at noon in these places. There was
still greater demand for exactness, and
| the telegraph companies took Up the
idea of sending out the stroke Of noon
over their great mileage of wires The
detail was extended further, and many
clocks were established in public places
and IN business houses. that were con-
ncctod in an electric circuit with the
time correction service of these COM
panies and these clocks were set at the
exact hour Of noon each day by i'm.
pulse SEM out from the United States
Naval observatory.
The government. the telegraph com
panies and the railroads were particu-
larly interested in the Standardization
of time for the nation, for the purpose
of facilitating business that reaches out
over great stretches. All these have,
consequently. lent their aid in the ex-
tending of this time-correcting system.
How Time Is Obtained
The manner in which the government
| gets the exact time is interesting. 1t
maintains an extensive establishment
spread over forty acres of ground, rep.
presenting hundreds of thousands Of dol.
lars in investment and costing tens of
thousands each year for maintenance.
just TO know exactly what time of day
it is, OF course, there are clocks, the
finest made in all tho world, clocks
that are much complained of if they
vary three -hundredths Of n second in a
six months period. Their pendulums
swing in vacnums, the temperature in
the rooms in which they are located is
not allowed to vary degree, summer
or winter. But clocks cannot be made
to keep scientifically correct time.
The only reliable clocks of the scien-
lists are the stars. These must be re-
sorted to when il is necessary to actual.
ly find out what time Of day it is, There
great instruments build on the bedrock