The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-07-10
trruguay's Service Idea Is
Welcomed by Electri-
cal Men Of u. S.
ZERO HOUR IS EIGHT
Every Night the Lights Dim,
and Everyone in Monte
video Sets His Watch

big idea from a little country
b, electric time ball" Every night
,r..,.rly at S. the electric lights in
v..,.y.l,o. Uruguay. are dimmod
L...r,Iy once, for about n second,
t,. enough TO attract attention.
lSb .u.lpon people set their watches
Tr,+ les the electric time ball. Elec-
,-.... s.rylCe in Uruguay Is furnish
Oh .. me government. whether the
...,inated there or was adopted
,,,,Y. some other country, the writer
g... mot know, but 1t IS such splen-
dl ugblic convenience that upon
r,rl,rrg from South America a
,..- Iao. he brought 1t to the atten-
lion Df electrical men In tins couh-
A. 'no electrical industry leads all
others In the number of new inVen-
lions 500 10 il leader In ideas This
part..uIar idea, however, was taken
nm rather slowly That little group
of serious thinkers, the technical
mon were dubious about c6mplica-
,ors on their switchboards. The
switching equipment by which q city
-,riciiy. meeting variations hour by
hour the emergency demand when
storms darkcn the city, and keeping
current at even load, might be lik-
,nel tp the complex track and
switch system of big railroad ter
minal The technical men are nat
ura.'y skcptical when anybody wants
20 monkey with that.
But the commercial men heard
about it, roo. The commercial man Is
the fellow who has to sell Juice"
and electric appliances, straightcn
out cusomers' complaints and cre-
ate good will for electric utility cor
pora'0ns. His viewpoint is natural
ly different from that of the tech
!, u!cal man. II was not necessary to
I tell him twice about the possibilities
for creating good viii through some
thing that would render a valuable
public service and make people think
flyurahlv about electric utility cor
porauous once every day. He was
for IL Immediately.
IN Schenectady. n. Y, n big cleo
tric manufacturing center, electric
light flashes have been used for
several years to announce election
returns. one dip of the light indl-
eating that Jones has won, or two
that Smith has beat him. Frank II.
Gale, advertising manager OF the
General Electric company began
working enthusiastically for the
Uruguayan time bah and talking
about II At gatherings Of electrical
men. o. H. Caldwell, editor Of
Electrical Merchandising, which
deals with the commercial aspects
o' the industry, has taken It up
iourUa'iStical'v as something through
which electrical utility corporations
can improve their relations with the
public. At least one utility COM
pany in Greater New York is study
ing possibilities with a view to over
coming technical difficulties. An
eXrutv" OF another metropolitan
hnpnny while stating that the dlf-
<hcu'tios in flashing n time signal
over his great service networks
seemed inSurmountablc, welcomed
the Nopularization Of the idea.
or what use is time when it's
wrong Yet, to obtain accurate
umo is far from easy in great cities
where every minute Is supposed to
DC valuable. Naval observatory serv-
Ice from Washington is distributed
( 70 N"'v small part Of the ropula.
non The public sets its watches by
tower clocks, jewelers. chronome-
l'iA factory whistles and fire bolls,
"n'eh may vary as much as five
H'IhHirs, To estimate the need for
greater accuracy in this matter a
N'W YORK electrical man recently
,ooK sample" OF time as 1t is
sSn""n 20 the average New Yorker.
oy''ctng a typical street. he walked
uP one side several blocks and down
W., o,her' noting the time on out
siue clocks maintained by merchants
'"r p'd"strianS convenience, inside
..o,Ns visible from the street, jewel
erS clocks and chronomcters in.
wr,,h''"S-all Of which were run
n'hr m"rrily and being taken as n
S,'hdlrd by somebody, although thoy
were as far apart as forty minutes.
pS,r'hution of correct time over