The Monmouth inquirer., 1909-08-12
TINE OF THE NATION.
How 1t Is Kept at the Naval OBJ
servatory In Washington.
THE SIGNAL FOR HIGH NOON.
Il is Flashed Out Over Nearly a Mil
lion Miles of Telegraph Wires Every
Day In the Year-The Finely Ad-
Justsd Instruments That Are Used.

| every Qdy Ii Tic JchA q JOuA5 A40A
walks into a certain room of the main
building at the naval observatory
| which Is set up on a hill In the north
western part of the District OF Colum
bia. He glances at the various clocks
In the room and then goes over to 9
! table which Is covered with electric
apparatus.
He watches the clocks to his left
closely and waits for the hands to
reach 11:55. AS the second hand ap-
proaches the so on the dial he pre-
pares to shift a switch. The clock is
so finely adjusted that when the sec
ond hand points to go 1t exactly marks
the beginning Of a new minute.
AS it touches the 60 the switches
are thrown on. That starts signal
that goes out instantaneously over
100000 miles of telegraph lines. In
Washington, New York, Buffalo, Cleve-
land, Newport, Baltimore, Newport
News, Norfolk, Savannah, New Or
leans, Key West, Galveston, Chicago
and elsewhere the time balls go up on
their poles. People know that it is
Eve minutes to noon, Washington time.
The clock which keeps the time in
the observatory ticks on. With each
tick there is contact of electric
points. A circuit is closed, and an in
strument on the table similar in APP
pearance to a telegraph sounder ticks
away loudly.
1t goes on to the twenty-ninth Sec
ond, then skips one tick, then resumes
its steady sounding until the last FIVE
seconds; then there is another gap.
These gaps are for the purpose of
giving listeners at the other ends Of
the great system of wires chance to
know what part Of the minute the
clock is on. So 1t goes up to the last
minute.
At the twenty ninth second there Is
again the skipping of one second.
Finally the clock gets around to the
fiftieth second. Then the circuit re-
mains open for ten seconds. There is
silence all along the telegraph wires.
At the other end where there are
time balls or merely train operators,
the long pause indicates that noon is
almost there. The second hand makes
on toward 60 and finally reaches
the mark. Then there is another click;
in about second the sounder is down,
and that tells hundreds Of thousands
of people that 1t is noon in Washing
ton.
1t Is wonderful operation, this get
ting the time, and highly technical.
Finely adjusted clocks, chronographs
and other instruments of great value
are used, and the taking and recording
of the time have reached point where
the human equation is practically elm
mated.
The results obtained are Of great
value, particularly to mariners. The
time is not only flashed to hundreds
Of points in the United States, but it
is sent far out to sea by wireless. A
cable carries the flash to Havana; an
other to Panama and Callao, Peru.
The observatory here does not send
the time much farther west than the
Rockies, but they have an observatory
at the Mare Island navy yard, and
from there the time is sent up and
down the Pacific coast, just as 1t is
from here to the eastern part of the
United States. In the cities where the
central time is used the fash marks
IL O'Clock. An hour later local opera
tors drop the time balls.
The mean time Is determined by as
Economical observations. When GER
tain stars pass the seyenty-fifth merid-
ian, called the meridian Of Washing
ton, 1t is certain time. The operator
watches for the stars through tele-
scope. the field Of which is covered
with fine wires.
AS the stars reach certain point in
transit the operator presses key in
his hand. A contact is made and re-
corded on chronograph. The chrome
graph consists of cylinder covered
with paper. A fountain pen rests on
the paper. 1t Is held by an arm at
tached to the mechanism. The cylin-
der revolves once minute, and the
pen moves along the surface Of the
paper making spiral line.
A sidereal clock Of the finest make Is
running In vault underneath the OBJ
servatory. With each tick of the
clock there is contact Of two points
These two points are attached to wires
that lead to an electro-magnet at
tached to the arm that holds the pen
of the chronograph. The clock is SO
adjusted that each minute the pen
jumps to one side. Consequently there
is a break in the line.
There are other breaks, too, when
the observer watches the stars
cross the lines In the field of the
telescope The mean time thus re
corded for each star, after being cor
rected for errors, is the clock time Of
the stars transit. Whatever difference
there is between the clock time ane
the sidereai time marked by the trans
it of the stars is the error Of ths
clock. From these astronomical OBJ
servations the sidereai time is OBJ
kained. The error amounts to bu
little, rarely being more than from
FIVE one-hundredths to ten one-hun
dredths of second.
The time of sending a fash over thu