Omaha daily bee., 1909-06-12
KEEPING The NATIONS TINE
Wonderful Clocks Keep Busy at the
Washington Observatory.
DONE BY DELICATE INSTRUMENTS
How the Signal Marking Noon is
Flashed over 100000 Miles OF
wires and CabIes-sent by
wireless, Also.

before II O'Clock noon every Gay IN Ihe
year q young man walks into a certain
room Of the main building at the naval
observatory, which is set up on a hill
in the northwestern part Of the District
Of Columbia. He glances at the various
clocks in the room and then goes over
to a table covered with electric appar-
atus.a
He watches the clocks to his left closely
and waits for the hands to reach five
minutes Of II. As the second hand APP
proaches the 60 on the dial he prepares
70 shift a. switch. The clock is so finely
adjusted that when the second hand points
to so II exactly marks the beginning Of
a new minute and the end Of the old.
As 1t touches the so the switches are
thrown on. That starts a signal that goes
out instantapeously over 900, 900 miles of
telegraph lines. In Washington, New York,
Buffalo, Cleveland, Newport, Baltimore,
Newport News, Koy West, Galveston, Chi
cago and elsewhere the time balls go UP
on their poles. People know that It is
five minute before noon, Washington
time.
The clock which keeps the time in the
observatory ticks on. With each tick there
Is a contact Of electric points. A circuit
is closed and an instrument on the table
| SAAAAAA@ W n az sShLNNA tAShs iva
loudly.
1t goes on to the ~twenty-ninth second,
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
other ends Of the great system Of wires
a chance to know what part of the minute
the clock is on. And so 1t goes UP to the
last minute.
AZ the twenty-ninth second there Is
again the skipping of one second. Finally
the clock gets around to the fiftieth sec
ond. Then the circuit remains open for
ten seconds. There is silence all along
the telegraph wires.
At the other ends, where there are time
balls, or merely train operators, the long
pause indicates that noon is almost there.
The second hand makes on toward sixty
and finally reaches the mark. Then there
is another click, about a second the
sounder is down and that tells hundreds
Of thousands Of people tina it is noon in
Washington. that the naval observatory is
now one Of the best time-keeping insti-
tutions in the United States.
1t is a wonderful operation, this getting
the time. and highly technical. Finely ad-
Justed clocks, chronographs and other in
Of great value are used, and the
taking and recording OF the time has now
reached such a point that the human equa-
ton II practically eliminated.
The results obtained are of great Wlue
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, another sends 1t down to
Panama and as far as Callao, Peru.
The observatory here does not send the
time much further 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. lust
as II 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. Am hour later the local operators
drop the time balls.
Timing the Star MOvement.
The mean time is determined by astrn-
nomical observations. When certain stars
pass the seventy-fifth meridian, called the
meridian OF Washington, it is a certain
time. The operator watches for the stars
through a 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 and recorded on
a chronoEraph. The chronograph consists of
a cylinder covered with paper. It is held
oys an arm attached to the mechanism.
The cylinder r~evolves once a 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 a vault underneath the observa-
tory. With each tick OF the clock there il
a contact of two points. These two points
are attached to wires that lead to an cleo
tromagnet attachment to the arm that holds
the pen OF the ch~ronograph. The clock il
SO adjusted that each minute the pen is
made to jump 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 be-
ing corrected for errors is the clock time
OF the stars transit. Whatever difference
there Is between this clock time and the
sidereal time marked by the transit Of thu
stars is the error OF the clock. From these
astronomical observations the sidereal tim,
Is obtained The error amounts to but lit,
te' rarely being more than from five one,
hundredths to ten ~one-hundredths OF a sec
ond.
The sidereal clocks are wonderful piece,
OF work, They were made in Berlin by 8
man named Riefler. There are two OF tn,
clocks in the observatory building here. an,
a third Riefler clock is in the room from
which the time is sent out to the world.
The sidereal clocks in the observator,
are beneath the ground, in the basemen
OF the building. The room which con
tains them is small. There are three wall
: surrounding II, with spaces between them
d The effort Is made to keep the tempera
ture within the room always the same
For this purpose there Is a rmo
SO delicately made that the increase Il
heat caused by the presence OF a human
n being In the room, II only for a minute
will be indicated.
A The clocks are in large glass cylinders
-FOUR or five feet high and hermeticaIr
sealed The cylinders are fastened I
stone pillars which reach down into tn
flooring. Thus there IL no chance OF vibra
t. lions affecting the clock except from earth
auakes. and such happenings are beyon
the control of the scientists.
The clock winds itself every thirty sec
onds by means of a small weight. The IA.
OF the weight moves the clock. When tn
weight reaches a certain point a small cleo
l. tromagnet becomes operatIva ana 81