Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-03
HALL CLOCKS
ARE ABANDONED
BY FIRE BOARD
Municipality Pays SIS Per Week
TO Keep Up Joke Time
Telling System.

In the last annuaI report OF the fi1sn-
cial departments of the city there APP
pears under the head Of keeping in
Repair the Public Buildings'' an item
which reads, Care tower clock, s2s0.5 80"
This might not strike the average tax
payer as being much Of an outlay for
maintaining the clock system in the
City Hall, but anyone familiar with the
service that the hall really gets would
readily agree that the item referred to
is just about $2S0.5o too much.
Every office at the City Hall is
equipped with a clock that is regulated
by a master clock on the top floor OF
the building, and there is not a time
when all the clocks connected with the
system should not be absolutely cor
rect and uniform. Instead of this,
however, there la not been a day for
months when any two clocks in the
hall have shown the same time at a
given hour.
The system has become so bad that
1t has got to be a standing joke In all
the. offices, and anyone in the hall
who really want to know the right
time would never think of referring to
the clocks that form part of the build
ing's service. In most instances the
unreliable system in, vogue is not a
very serious matter, but there is n
department that has been sorely tried
by the erratic operation of h City
Hall clock service.
Handicaps Fire Department.
T.. H. ln1o 49, o.A - E-1 oIo ra, taIn-
graph the records of the bureau depend
to a great extent upon the time when
alarms are turned in, the duration of
the fire and tho hour when the return
taps are sounded.
Adam Bosch, superintendent of the
fire alarm telegraph bureau, has been
put to his wits end for months to try
and keep an accurate record of the
departments alarms by referring to
the City Hall clock service. Some
weeks ago he gave up in despair and
was compelled to pick up the right time
from any outside source that was avail
able.
OF course this haphazard method
was not alone unsatisfactory to him,
but entirely out of keeping with the
other excellent methods in force in
lit u DC CCoAA ~
serious that Mr.. Bosch appealed to the
Board of Fire Commissioners yester-
day and asked that they install some
time system that he could depend
upon and tina would aid in keeping
he records OF the department in
proper shape. 1t was decided to re-
sort to the Western Union time service
for the bureaus work and to disre-
gard the City Hall service entirely In
the future.
Police Also Troubled.
The police department has had SINH
lar trouble, and the matter is getting
beyond the point where 1t is a Joke.
The system cost originally more than
So. 900 outside of the cost of wiring and
the installation of the motors.
Considering that the system has
been In use only about three years, it
can hardly be said that the mechanism
is worn out or that the equipment is
antiuuated. It has been ~overhauled
time and again without apparently
r~ernedying whatever faults are re-
sponsible for the poor service afforded.
The same kind of a clock system is
being used in large office buildings and
manufacturing plants in the city, but
in none of these places rs the sane
trouble experienced as at the City Hall.
At the present rate of maintenance
the city is paying about So a week to
keep the system going, but not to keep
It in proper shape. There are any
number of expert clockmakers in the
city who would be glad to contract
with the city for 800 a year to keep the
master clock in correct running order,
and, as the city supplies all the neces-
sary material needed to maintain the
system, it would appear to be an easy
matter for the building committee of
the Common Council to arrange to keep
this expensive adjunct OF the City Hall
equipment in proper ordor.
In the past work has fallen upon any
one who could spare the time to attend
to it, and the results show that the task
has not been entrusted to skilled hands.
Clocks Only Ornamental.
The general impression at the hall is
that if the system is allowed to con-
tinue as 1t has in the past 1t would be
better to merely keep the clocks for or
namen and apply the cost of mainten-
ance to the installation and rental of
a system that will at least afford some
idea of the right time, even If the equip
ment is not quite so elaborate or pleas
ing to the eye.