Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-20
Wireless Waves Determine
Time.
Master Clock in Boston Controlled BY
Radio Impulse Sent From Washington
(From the Boston Transcript.)


| Grandfather's clock may be permitted to
retain its outside appearance in years to come
| but under the guiding hand of progress III clock
making there is no legitimate place for its nte-
| rior, for old fashioned clock-works may be out
| of fashion one OF these days and the hands move
| with equal precision under electric impulses that
are stimulated by radio waves from some cen
! tral station
In fact that process OF measuring time is
| already in operation in Boston. Pedestrians are
attracted by the clock that stands in one OF the
! West street windows of Bigelow kennard 4
| Co. and gives the time without ticking
| They no doubt visualize the intricate machin-
| cry that may be presumed to be inside, accus-
| toned as all people are. to the basis 1rechan-
caI principles OF timepiece, but the fact is that
| in the massive case there is no pendulum and
| back OF the large artistic dial there are only a
! few wheels and coils that gather up electrical
| impulses from master clock the seventh
! floor of the building and convert them into a
| propellng force for the movement of the dia
hands That, however is only the net result OF a
| entirely new idea i'll the management OF clocks
mot to say operation oi clocks.
The new principle in this arrangement is
the automatic regulation Of the master clock by
wireless waves, transmitted, in turn to the sec
ondary clock. The demonstration i'll the Bige-
low, kennard & Co.'S store IS made by the II
ventor. r. S. Casner of New Jersey, a mechani-
OF some day revolutionizing the clock industry
by his invention, so that in the future there may
be clock units in the large office buildings and
hotels and in industrial establishments and even
in large homes that have many clocks. Bigelow,
kennard & Co. are giving careful consideration
to the possibilities in this direction and are ex-
perimenting with Mr.. Casners invention.
Almost numberless secondary clocks could
be hooked up with one master clock and be
regulated every day by the government wireless
station III Arlington, D. c., whence wireless
time messages are sent out every day between
II SIS and Il o'clock. A proposition is under
consideration in New York Of installing 1900
such secondary clocks in hotel, and Mr., Cas-
ner says that they could be placed under the
control of one master clock, or there may be
established three units, each with a master
clock. Just how many can be operated by ono
master clock is matter OF speculation. Dut it
is only the master clock that needs personal at
tention occasionally to keep the system cperat-
ing, and it is the machinery only that needs this
attention. Correct time is maintained by the
wireless waves.
As Mr.. Casner explains the invention it
seems simple. For the purpose of the demonstra-
ton in Boston he stretched one wire between
two flag poles on top Of the Bigelow, Kennard
building to intercept the wireless waves from
Arlington.
Bringing this wire in through window on
the seventh floor, he connected it with his
master clock, connecting that with the secon-
Diary clock on the street floor. This noon he
demonstrated to group OF spectators the op-
Grafton of the machinery on the seventh floor
as the wireless message came from Arlington,
d. {. At the side of the large clock dial there
is selecting device. so named by Nj. Casner
because it selects the effective waves coming
through the ether. Some of the waves have no
influence on it. The whole mechanism is attuncd
to the wave-length that goes out from Airing
ton to tell the time, ard there is all adjustment
on the clock that opens and closes circuit in
the selecting device so that it eliminates posi-
bilities of error, and the y o'clock time from
Arlington sets the master clock forward or
backward, as the situation calls ior and thirty
minutes later the master clock corrects all the
secondary clocks that are hooked up witt, It.