Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-31

/ tend to mark the exact points at
which the time changes. according to
| the sun. If they We're arranged one
side of a street might be an hour be-
hind the" opposite side. The actual
| variation. however, is never more than
a half hour on both sides of the line.
! AT one point in the Pacific Ocean the
| line is very crooked. having been laid
down so that most of the inhabited is
lands are on one Sue and nothing but
ocean on the other side. II this were
not so inhabitants Of one island would
find themselves a day ahead Of their
relatiy on a neiGnOoring island.
Transmitting Clocks Set.
The time signals are sent out by the
Naval Observatory from special mean
time transmitting clocks. They con
tain electric mechanism by which they
may be set within q small fraction of
second and they also have electric
break circuit apparatus for emitting
the signals. Before each signal these
transmitting clocks are compared with
the standard star clocks and then set
as nearly as possible to correct mean
time In making the comparison it is
necessary to take into consideration
the constantly changing difference be-
tween star time and mean sun time
and also the error of the standard star
clock. From 1855 am. until II noon,
and from $3.50 pm. until 10 pm dashes
are sent out on each second except
that the 10Th second of each minute.
the 55th to 59th seconds inclusive of
the first four minutes and the 50th
to 59th seconds inclusive of the 59th
minute. are omitted. Exactly at the
| beginning of the hour there is a long
er dash. In all cases the beginning Of
| the dash denotes the beginning of the
second.
The error Of the time signal as it
comes over the radio is slightly great
er than an original possible error of a
| little less than three one-hundredths
of a second at the observatory. The
| lags of the radio stations, it has been
determined. range from three or four
hundredths to slightly more than
tenth of a second. This. of course. is
close enough for all ordinary CONNER
cial purposes or for navigation, but for
scientific purposes it is necessary to
know every possible correction and
the observatory sends to all persons
| who request them monthly sheets Civ
ing the data concerning all signals.
Queer Discrepancies Exist.
The time signals sent out from
Washington are compared, with all
possible corrections, with the signals
sent out from other great national OBJ.
servatories. The comparison dis.
closes certain curious fxcts which
puzzle astronomers and the inves-
LEGATION of which constitutes the
most advanced work in the scien-
tific investigation Of that most intan-
gible of all clements which enter into
lifetime. Despite all corrections
which have been made up to the pres
ent discrepancies of hundredths Of
seconds exist between Washington
and certain European stations--not-
ably Edinburgh and Greenwich.
The Naval Observatory astrorom.
ers, however, waste no time on fanci-
full hypothesis as that of travelling
backward in time but are confident
that the apparent discrepancies are
the result of instrumental defects or
different conditions of observation
which can be corrected. once they
become known. Some time ago an
astronomer worked over the figures
at the Naval Observatory and point
ed out a curious coincidence between
the time discrepancies and the pre-
vailing winds at the different observa-
tories. He didn't attempt to explain
how the wind brought about the diff
ferences.
From time to time bits are Clipped