Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1909-08-26
TIME OF THE NATION,
How 1t Is Kept at the Naval Oh.
servatory In Washington.
THE SIGNAL FOR HIGH NOON.
Il Is Fls he'd Out Over &early a Mil
lion Miles of elegraph Wires Every
Day In the Year-The Finely Ad.
lust I'd Instruments That Are Used.


every day in the year Il young man
walks into a certain room of the main
buil,lng ut the naval observatory,
which is ser up on II Hill III the north
western part Of the District of Column
hia He glancPS ut the various clocks
in the room and then goes over to
table which is covered with electric
apparatus
He watches the clocks to his left
closely and is for the hands to
reach II % - the second hand ap-
proacheS the GO on the dial he pre-
pares to shift ii switch The clock Is
so finely adjusted that when the sec
ond hand POINTS to 60 It exactly marks
the beginning of Il new minute.
AS ii touches the 60 the switches
are thrown on. That starts signal
that goes ont 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
five minutes to nuon 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
strumcnt Oh the table similar in ap-
pearance to a telegraph sounder ticks
away loudly.
II goes ON to the twenty ninth sec
ond. then skpS one tick. then resumes
its steady sounding until the last tive
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 Il chance 10
know what part Of the minute the
clock is on SO ii 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
fftieth 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 il
almost there The second hand makes
on toward 80 and finally reaches
the mark Then there is another click;
I'm about II second the Sounder Is down,
and that tells hundreds of thousands
Of people that it is noon in Washing
ton.
1t Is Il 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 rea he'd Il 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 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 flash 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-tifth mcrid-
ian, called the meridian of Washing
ton. ii is certain time. The operator
watches for the stars through Il tcle-
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 4 contact Is made and re-
corded on n 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 Il minute, and the
pen moves along the surface of the
paper, making a spiral line.
A Sidereal clock of the finest make ls
runnin. in vault underneath the OBJ
servatory. With each tick of the
clock there is II 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 chronoeraph. The clock is so
adjusted that each minute the pen
Jumps to one side Consequently there
is 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 or
the stars transit Whatever difference
there is between the clock time and
the sidereal time marked by the trans
It of the stars Is the error OF the
clock. From these Astronomical OBJ
servations the sidereal time Is OBJ
tanned. The error amounts to but
little rarely being more than from
five one -hundredths to ten one-hun-
aredths Of a second.
The time of sending fash over the
wires Is practically nothing. a f1asL
has rea, he'd Greenwich, ENGLAND, In
three-tenths of = second Washington
Cor. Chic ago Inter Ocean.