The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-23

company would be likely to profit
by giving the signal as this would
be an extra advantage of using cleo
tricity in the home. Houses using
gas alone would be without the SIP
nal unless they were able to catch
it from some outside electric light
The important thing about The
electric time signal is that it is
| flashed to the people of a whole
city so that they are compelled for
an instant to think about the time
Instinctively, they pull out their
watches or look IN at the clock
and note the variation. Without the
signal they could get the approx
innate time daily at a number ~
more or less reliable clocks abonr
the streets, but that involves effort
and the effort is not impelled BY
an outside influence as in the case
of the electric light signal.
Need for Such Reform.
The need for single standard
of correct time is apparent in our
cities. Because of the large num-
Der of such calls, telephone oper-
ators are. forbidden to respond to
appeals for "the right time please"
Comparisons of the big clocks On
towers and posts and the chrono-
meters in windows will show that
scarcely two have exactly the same
time According to Mr.. BsaI, most
people would be surprised 70 know
how much window chron0meters
are permitted to get in error, even
though they may carry card in
scribed correct time" Yet, people
set their watches by these different
clocks and ChronOmeters daily.
each feeling that the particular one
he selects as a standard is the most
reliable.
The Western Union clocks which
are set regularly by electricity are
as trustworthy guides as our cit
les now offer. These clocks have as
their standard the Naval Observa-
tory timepieces at Washington, the
correct time being wired to each
city at noon every day. The Naval
Observatory clock is one of the
master clocks of the country. There
is another at the Bureau of Stand
ards. Such clocks vary as little as
one-hundredth of a second in II
hours. To appreciate this high de-
gree of accuracy, compare it with
the average small watch varying
perhaps half a minute a day or in
other words 5000 times as much as
the master clock
The Western Union clocks off
er sufficiently reliable time stand
ard, but they do not begin TO reach
an entire population. Other clocks
are used by many people who have
long had the habit of consulting a
clock at some particular point pass
ed daily.
The time ball is another suffi-
GENTLY accurate signal, which like
the Western Union clocks reaches a
large number of people in a city,
but not the entire city.
The time ball is a mariners de-
vice and is used principally in
ports. The need for a ship to get
the correct time was first met By
the time ball at the Cape of Good
Hope in Africa, about seventy years
ago. A ball was raised to the top
of a high pole near the wharf, and
at noon it was released so that It
slid down the pole. The captain of
a ship near the port could watch
for the signal through his spy glass
and determine by it the errors Of
the ships chronOmeters.
This became a popular signal in
ports, and is used occasionally else
where. On the State, War and Navy
in this city, for instance.
ball time" is the standard for
many of the government clerks,
The ball is raised by hand ana a
device set so that at exactly y
o'clock it automatically slides down
the pole.
From this ball signal the electric
light signal is sometimes referred
to as the electric time ball" despite
the fact that there is no ball con-
nected with the signal given by
the lights.