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 then* 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 are sent 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- 



