The Globe-republican., 1910-02-03

the beginning Of new minute.
AS it touches tie 60 the switches
are thrown on. That starts signal
that goes out instantaenously over
100000 miles of telegraph lines In
Washington, New YORK, Buffalo, Cloye'
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 before uoon Washington
time
The clock which keeps the time in
the observatory ticks or, with each
ties there ia contact Of electric
/ points. A circuit is closed and an in
strumant On the table similar in ap-
pearaace TO a telegraph sounder ticks
away loudly.
| It goes on to the twenty-ninth sec
oEd, then skips one tick, then re-
slaes its steady sounding until the
last i've seconds, tAen there is an
other gap These gaps are for the pur-
pose Of giving listeners at other ends
! Of tie great system Of wires chance
to know what part Of the minute the
clct is Oh. SO It goes up 10 the last
minute
At the twenty-ninth second there is
again the skipping Of one second.
! Finally the clock gets around to the
Gftieth 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 co and finally
reaches the mark. Then there is an
other click, in about a second the
sounder is down and that tells hun
dreds Of thousands of people that it is
noon in Washington, that the naval
observatory says so, and the naval
observatory is now one Of the best
time-keeping institutions in the United
States.
1t is a wonderful operation, this
getting the time, and highly tech
nical. Finely adjusted clocks, chrome.
graphs and other instruments of great
value are used, and the taking and
recording Of the time has 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 dndreds
of points in the United Stoies. but it
is sent far cut to sea by wire ess, and
down to Panama and Calllo. Peru.
The observatory here does not send
the time much farther t than the
Rockies, but they have an observa-
tory at the Mare I3,a / navy yard,
and from there the tine is sent up
and down the Pacific cast, just as it
is from here to the tern part of the
United States. In the cities where
the central time is used the flash
marks II o'clock. An hour later local
operators drop the time balls.
The mean tine is determined by
astronomical observations When GER
tain stars pass the seventy-fifth meri.
dian, called the meridian Of Washing
ten, it Is a e. Jain time
AS the 3, rs reach a certain point
in transit iAe operator presses a key
in his hand. A contact is made and
recorded on chronograph. The
chronograph consists Of a cylinder
covered with paper. A fountain per
rests on the paper. 1t is held by ar
arm attached to the mechanism. The
cylinder reyolves once minute 'ant
the pen moves along the surface o.
the paper making spiral line.
A sidereal clock of the finest make
is running in vault underneath thu
observatory. With each tick of the
clock there is a contact of two points
These two points are attached Il
wires that lead to an electro-magne
attached to the arm that holds tn,
/ pen of the chronograph. The clock Il
so adjusted that each minute the pei
jumps to one side. Consequently ther,
Is break In the line.
There are other breaks, too, whel
the observer watches the stars eros
the lines in the field of the telescope
The mean time thus recorded for eacl
star, after being corrected for errors
IL the clock time Of the stars transit
Whatever difference there is betwee
the clock time and the sidereal tim
marked by the transit Of the stars
the error Of the clock, From thes
astronomical observations the side
real time is obtained. The errs
amounts to but little, rarely bein
more than from five one-hundred.h .h
to ten one.hundrsaths Of second