Evening star., 1914-12-27

Il
to its other business. transmits time
signals which are initiated at the OBJ
servatory, several miles from Airing
ton. fiction writer's to the contrary not
withstanding.
The Naval Observatory may be said
to be the first scientific Institution of
the government 1t was established by
the navy in 1872, primarily for the pur-
pose Of rating chronometers for the
ships of the navy; in other words. to
fix standard of time. Since then it
has grown into one of the first astro-
nomical observatories of the world. AL
ways naval officer has been it's super
intendent, with large corps of scien-
lists under his direction The present
superintendent is Capt. ]. A Hooge
werf, Z. S. N, and Commander Edwin
T. Pollock, U. S. N, is head of what is
known as the time service.
In the early days of the observatory
the device of dropping time ball at
noon was installed to notify Washing
tablishment in Washington of the tele-
graph fire alarm system, the transmits
sion of the noon signal by telegraph
from the observatory to the govern
ment departments in Washington was
begun.
In 1877 a Kansas jeweler and watch
maker wrote to the department asking
if 1t would not be possible to transmit
time signals by telegraph to interior
parts of the country for the purpose of
permitting the better regulation of
clocks and watches. The suggestion
found favor but, as the government
had 10 telegraph lines, the Commercial
telegraph companies were invited to
establish such service.
Ever since then any person OF corr
poration desiring time service has been
free to run wires to the observatory
and establish an instrument there from
which time signals are automatically
sent. This made standard official time
comparatively cheap and gave it wide
circulation.
But the development of radio teleg-
raphy broadened the field. In 1905 the
nails from Its sea coast wireless sta-
tions, receiving them by telegraph
from the Naval Observatory Even this
was not absolutely. accurate. In all
so called. Wire telegraphy is almost
instantaneous, but not quite So Wire
less is so fast as to be practically In
Stantaneous.
Then came the establishment of the
wireless plant at Arlington, with it's
three great towers. one 500 feet high
and two $50 feet high each. In Deem
Der. 1912, time signals were sent ex-
perimentally from this plant. Then, at
the midnight which ushered in the new
year of 1913 went forth the first New
Year signal. Not, however until March
81. 1913. did the regular time service
from the Arlington station begin.
Since then it has gone out twice a
day. at noon and at 10 pm. The night
signal is of particular value as it has
been found that conditions at night
are best for ong-distance transmits
sion.
These time signals from Arlington
have been heard at Malta, 1900 miles
away, of which 500 miles is over land.
at Manos, Brazil. 3,10O miles; the bat,
tleship Idaho picked them up at Vera
Cruz. 1,775 miles distant, and a mer-
chant vessel, southbound from New
York, checked her chronometer by
them daily from the time of her de-
parture to point 600 miles north of
Rio Janeiro, a distance of 4,25O miles.
Overland transmission is not SO far
reaching. Still the time signals have
been recorded at Fort Omaha, Neb.;
st. Louis. Mo-; Fort Sam Houston.
Tex. and many other distant points
Another naval observatory and navy
wireless plant at Mare Island, Cal,
provide like service for the Pacific
But how is 1t all done?
Go to the Naval Observatory and
Capt. HoogewerH and Commander Pol
lock will show you.
The uniform rotation of the earth
on it's axis is taken as the basis for