The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-09-15


similar in appearance to a tele-
graph sounder ticks away loudly.
1t goes on to the twenty-ninth
second, then skips one tick, then re-
sumes 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 sys-
TEN of wires a chance to know
what part ofthe minute the clock is
on. SO it 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
remains open for ten seconds.
There is silence all along the tele-
graph wires.
At the other end, where there are
time balls or merely train opera
tors, the long pause indicates that
noon is almost there. The second
hand makes on toward 60 and fl
nally reaches the mark Then there
is another click; in about a sec
ond the sounder is down, and that
tells hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie that it is noon in Washing
ton.
1t is a wonderful operation, this
getting the time, and highly techni-
cal. Finely adjusted clocks, chron-
ographs and other instruments of
great value are used, and the taking
and recording of the time have
reached a point where the human
equation is practically eliminated.
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 Ha-
vana; another 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 it is from here to the east
the cities where the central time IS
used the flash marks l. o'clock. An
hour later local operators drop the
time balls.
The mean time is determined by
astronomical observations. When
certain stars pass the seventy-tifth
fifth meridian, called the meridian
nf n or ic n IN
The operator watches for the stars
through telescope, the field of
which is covered with fine wires.
AS the stars reach a certain point
in transit the operator presses a
key in his hand. A contact is made
| ard recorded on chronograph. The
chronograph consists of Il cylinder
covered with paper. 1t is held by
an arm attached to the mechanism.
The cylinder revolves once a min
ute, and the pen moves along the
surface of the paper, making
spiral line.
a sideral clock of the finest make
| is running in a vault underneath
the observatory. With each tick of
| the clock there is a contact of two
| points. These two points are at
tached to wires that lead to an
electro-magnet attached to the arm
that holds the pen of the chrono-
| graph 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
recorded for each star, after being
corrected for errors, is the clock
| time of the stars transit. What
ever difference there is between the
clock time and the sidereal time
marked by the transit of the stars
| in the error of the clock. From
these astronomical observations the
| sidereal time is obtained. The error
amounts to but little, rarely being
more than from five one-hundredths
to ten one-hundredths of a second.
The time of sending a flash over
| the wires is practically nothing. A
flash has reached Greenwich, Eng
land, in three-tenths of second
| Chicago Inter Ocean.