LEGAL TIME IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES—-PHILIPPOT. 253 
THE TIME SERVICE OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 
The knowledge of the exact time is of the utmost importance for 
the transaction of the business affairs of all the nations; especially so 
for those who have charge of the means of transportation and of rapid 
communication. This is the case for railroad and telegraph com- 
panies and especially for maritime commerce. The captains of vessels, 
at the moment of clearing for sea, must be able to regulate their 
chronometers with precision, for upon these instruments depends the 
determinations, during their voyage, of the geographical positions of 
their vessels. Accordingly, at the principal ports of the world, a 
special device (time ball) is used to give the mariners the exact time 
at known moments. Indeed, in certain ports, special bureaus for this 
purpose are at the service of sea captains during their stay in port; 
here they may deposit their chronometers so that their conditions 
and daily rates may be determined. These time-service bureaus are 
generally in direct communication with an astronomical observatory, 
which assures them of the time used. 
Various countries of the world have organized, according to their 
means and local necessities, more or less extensive time services. 
Generally, in countries covered by a network of telegraph and 
telephone lines, a service is established such that the various bureaus 
connected by wire receive daily the necessary time signal. Those 
wishing signals can apply to these offices or rely on time furnished to 
exterior clock dials either at railroad stations or at post offices. 
In the United States of America the time is sent over all its im- 
mense extent of land. It is transmitted at noon by an accurately 
regulated pendulum which automatically sends currents of electricity 
over all the telegraph lines of the country. These currents actuate 
receiving instruments at all the telegraph stations. The duration of 
the transmission lasts five minutes. They aresent out from the Naval 
Observatory at Washington for all the region east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and from the observatory at Mare Island, Cal., for that to 
the west. Besides these noon signals, others can be sent during the 
course of the day when required. 
In Portugal the Lisbon-Tapada Observatory furnishes telegraphi- 
cally the time to the whole country, to the time ball at the arsenal at 
Lisbon, and to the chronometer station of the meteorological observ- 
atory of Ponta Delgada (S. Miguel, Azores). 
In Belgium the time is sent daily by telephone to the time-service 
office at the port of Antwerp where an assistant is detailed to compare 
such chronometers as may be deposited. An accurate Riefler clock 
serves to maintain the requisite time and work the time ball. The 
observatory sends the time also to the central bureau of the tele- 
