45 



TIME SIGNALS. 



It is much to be desired that the time kept by public or private 

 clocks should agree better, if not with the heavens, at least with 

 one another, and in order to accomplish this object satisfactorily 

 a signal should be given from an Observatory, or from some public 

 place where the time of the day can be known -with certainty at every 

 instant. This signal should be given at the precise moment of one 

 o'clock each day, so that every inhabitant in Hobart Town, and for 

 a considerable distance round will have the opportunity of regulating 

 their own clocks. By this means clocks will no longer go irregu- 

 larly, but without continually altering them their owners will have 

 an opportunity of ascertaining their daily rate, and thereby be 

 enabled to keep their common affairs of daily life more punctually. 



Time signals are by no means new, perhaps the first adoption of 

 them was by J. Letrow, director of the Observatory at Vienna, since 

 which time they have become of general use in most commercial 

 towns, particularly for the use of shipping. Their importance has 

 been frequently brought before the British Association, and various 

 systems have been adopted, but for general purposes the Time Ball, 

 or the firing of a cannon is admitted. 



The Time-ball apparatus was erected at the Royal Observatory at 

 Greenwich in the autumn of 1833. This ball, which is five feet in 

 diameter, is raised half-mast high at five minutes before one o'clock 

 as a preparatory signal for the public to watch ; it is then raised to 

 the top of the mast, and at the precise moment of one o'clock it is 

 dropped suddenly, and resumes its first position till the following day. 

 The error of letting off" the ball seldom amounts to more than 

 three-tenths of a second. 



Time-ball signals have been also adopted at Deal, Portsmouth, 

 Liverpool, and Edinburgh ; also at the Cape of Good Hope, St. 

 Helena, Madras, and many other British colonies. 



It was found at Edinburgh, that under some circumstances there 

 was time wasted in waiting for the ball to drop, and in the event of 

 any delay the exact time was lost. Thus the gun which could be 

 heard everywhere effected an economy of time. At the Palais Royale 

 at Paris, a small dial gun is fired when the sun arrives at a certain 

 meridian. In 1861, by the aid of electricity, a gun was fired at 

 Edinburgh Castle simultaneously with the dropping of the ball at the . 

 Observatory. Time gun signals are now becoming very general ; 

 they are adopted at ISTewcastle, Shields, Sunderland, and many 

 other towns. Melbourne has also taken advantage of this plan 

 of giving the public means of ascertaining correct time. Two 32 

 pounders have been mounted at the Melbourne University, and 

 at one o'clock p.m. each day one of these pieces is discharged. 



I have brought these few remarks before the present meeting, 

 considering the subject of sufficient importance to induce the Council 

 of the Royal Society to bring the matter under the consideration of 

 the Executive Government. The expense and trouble consequent 

 on the firing of a cannon at the battery or elsewhere, at a certain 

 moment, once a day, will bear no comparison with the benefit to 

 be derived from it — and although the colony is not sufficiently in 

 advance to provide the necessary apparatus for passing a current 

 of electricity from a galvanic battery to the transit circle, and from 



