TIME-KEEPING IN LONDON. 33S 



From London to the country : * For the 10 a. m. signal, 12 to 

 17 = $60 to $85. For the 1 p. m. signal, 27 to 32 = $135 to $160. 

 In London : For the hourly signal within a radius of two miles from 

 the General Post-Office, 15 = $75. But if the person desiring the 

 signal is off the line of the telegraph, he must pay, besides a stipulated 

 rental, an additional sum for the use of the wire which the department 

 is compelled to put up specially for him. The rental is in all cases 

 payable yearly in advance. 



In 1880 there were one hundred subscribers to the system, of whom 

 nineteen were in London, and eighty-one scattered through England, 

 with a few in Scotland and Ireland. 



Besides this general automatic distribution of tbe time-signals, a 

 considerable distribution of the 10 A. m. signal goes on by hand. At 

 that instant the chronopher makes a sound which an operator sits 

 ready to catch by ear. Upon hearing it he immediately dispatches a 

 signal by the ordinary telegraphic instrument, and this signal is received 

 a"t six hundred or more places, which again serve as distributing points 

 for more distant places. These are usually railway or post offices in 

 towns not supplied by the chronopher, which by virtue of authority 

 become the regulators of the clocks of the surrounding district. 



The wire from the observatory to London Bridge carries signals 

 hourly from the mean solar standard to a clock at the station of the 

 Southeastern Railway, which by changing connections sends Greenwich 

 time to different stations along the line as may be required. For this 

 service the Southeastern Railway gives the observatory the use of its 

 wire daily, for a few minutes, at 1 p. m. At this time the current 

 from the observatory drops the time-ball at Deal, which was erected 

 in 1855, to give time to the shipping in the Downs, and is the only 

 official coast time-signal. The ball in falling sends a " return " signal 

 to the observatory. The record shows that about once in two months 

 high wind prevents the raising of the ball, about once in six weeks it 

 fails to fall on account of some fault in the electric connections, and 

 about once a year it drops out of time. Under such circumstances it 

 is dropped correctly at 2 p. m. 



By special arrangement with the observatory a few London jewel- 

 ers receive the hourly Greenwich current on private wires. This 

 they use for the correction of their own time-keepers and in some 

 cases for distribution. Prominent among these are the Messrs. Barraud 

 & Lund, of Cornhill, who have patented a method for the synchroni- 

 zation of clocks. Their plan is put forward as a simple and effectual 

 means of setting any number of ordinary clocks to the same standard 

 time. All attempts to control clocks have been set aside as impracti- 



* Difference in charge for the same signal depends on the length of wire which the 

 department is compelled to put up specially for the subscriber. The one o'clock signal 

 is more expensive, because the wires are busier with telegraph duties at that hour than 

 at 10 a. m. 



