The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-08-21
time OF THE NATION.
How It Is Kept at the Naval Oh.
servatory In Washington.
THE SIGNAL FOR HIGH NOON.
u Is Flashed Out Over Nearly . Mil
lion Miles of Telegraph Wires Every
Day In the Year-The Finely Ad-
justed Instruments That Are Used.


justed Instruments That Are Used.
A few minutes before lo o'clock noon
every day in the year young man
walks into Il certain room Of the main
building at the naval observatory.
whic h is soy Up "u n hill in the north
western part If the District Of Column
bia. He slan,e> NJ The various clocks
in the. room and then goes over to 4
table which Is covered with electric
appa ratuS.
He watches the clocks to his left
closely and waits 70; the hands to
reach II %. AS the second hand APP
proache> the Go on the dial he pre-
pares TO shift switch. The clock is
so finely adjusted that when the sec
ond hand points to GO 1t exactly marks
the beginnin. OF new minute.
AS II touches the GO 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 60 up on
their poles. People know that it is
five 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. 4 circuit is closed. and an In.
strument on the table similar In ap-
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 Eve
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 a chance to
know what part OF the 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
6ftieth 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 GO and finally reaches
the mark. Then there is another click:
in about second the sounder is down.
of necple that 1t Is noon in Washing.
ton.
1t is a 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 1t
is sent far out to sea by wireless. A
cable carries the dash to Havana; an
other to Pana ma and Callao. Peru.
The observatory here does not send
the time much farther west than the
Rockies. but they have an observatory
Mt the Mare Island navy yard. and
from there the time In 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 dash marks
II 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 seventy-fif merid-
ian. called the meridian Of Washing.
ton. 1t is a certain time. The operator
watches for the stars through a tele-
scope the field Of which Is covered
with fine wires.
AS the stars reach a certain point in
transit the operator presses q key in
his hand. A contact is made and re-
corded on a chronograph. The chrono-
graph consists Of a cylinder covered
with paper. fountain pen rests on
the paper. II 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 a 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 q 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 chrouoCraph. The clock is 30
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 6eld Of the
telescope. The mean time thus re-
coril,d 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 and
the sidereal time marked by the trans
1t Of the stars is the error Of the
clock. From these astronomical OBJ
servations the sidereai time Is OBJ
tanned. The error amounts to but
little. rarely being more than from
five one-hundretlfhs TO ten one-hun-
dredths Of SECOND.
The time Of sending a fash over the
fr a.