Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1909-08-18

lion Miles Of Telegraph Wires Every
Gay In the Tear-The Finely Ad-
Justed instruments That Are Used.
A Few minutes before ~ o'clock noon
every day In the year "A young man
walks into a certain room OF the main
building nj the naval observatory.
which Is set up on a hin I'm the north
western part OF the District OF Column
bia. He glances at the various clocks
In the room and then goes over 10 n
table which Is covered with electric
apparatus.
lie watches the clocks to his left
closely and waits for the hands TO
reach 1855. AS the second hand an
proaches the 60 on the dial he pre-
pares to shift a switch. The clock IS
so finely adjusted that when the sec
ond hand points to co il exactly marks
the beginning of a new minute.
AS 1t touches the GO the switches
are thrown on. That starts n signal
that goes out simultaneously 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 Il Is
five minutes 10 noon. Washington time.
The clock which keeps the time in
the observatory ticks on. With each
tick there Is a contact OF electric
points. circuit Is closed. and an in
Strument on the table similar i'm ap-
pearance TO a telegraph sounder ticks
away loudly.
1t goes on TO the twenty-ninth sec
ond. then shps 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 n 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
| hftieth 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 halls 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 a second the sounder IS down,
and that tells hundreds OF thousands
Of people that Il is noon i'm Washing.
ton.
IL 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 4 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 Il
/ Is sent far ont TO sea by wireless. 4
cable carries the flash TO Havana: an,
other 10 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
I from there the time Is sent up and
down the Pacific coast. just as Il is
I from here la the eastern part Of the
\ United States. In the cities where the
I central time is used the flash 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
I tain stars pass the Seventy-fifth merid
fan. called the meridian OF Washing
I ton. il 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 n certain point in
transit the operator presses a key in
his Hand. \ contact is made and re
corded on chronograph. The chrome
graph consists OF cylinder covered
with paper. \ fountain pen rests OF
the paper II is held by an arm ut
tachcd To the mechanism. The cylin
der rcvolyeS once Minute. and the
pen moves along the surface Of the
paper. making spiral line.
\ Sidereal clock of the finest make /:
running in vault underneath the oh
/ servatory. With each tick of tn,
clock there is a contact of two points
These two points are attached 10 wire:
that lead TO an electrO-magnet at
tached TO the arm that holds the pei
of the chrOnograph. The clock is ;,
adjusted that each minute the pei
jumps to one side. Consequently Their,
IL break in the line.
There are other breaks, too. wheI
the observer waite mes the STAR
cross the lines I'm the field OF IN,
telescope. The mean time thus re
corded for each star. after being cor
rected for errors, is the clock time o
the stars transit. Whatever differenc,
there is between the clock time anC
the Sidereal time marked by the trans
Ii Of the stars is the error of TN,
clock. From these astronomical oh
servatiOnS the Sidereal time Is Oh
tanned. The error amounts 10 bu
.,ttle. rarely being more than from
five onc-hundredths 90 ten one-hun