THE SPECIAL TELEGRAPHIC TIME SIGNAL 

 FROM THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY 



In Honor of the Eighth International Geographic Con- 

 gress, Including the Greeting Sent by the Con- 

 gress to the Nations of the World 

 and Their Replies 



AN interesting incident of the re- 

 ception at the Naval Observa- 

 tory to the Eighth Interna- 

 tional Geographic Congress on the 

 evening of September 8, 1904, was the 

 sending of a special telegraphic time 

 signal according to the plan followed 

 daily at noon, but ending at midnight. 



At the close of the reception as many 

 of the members of the Congress as could 

 do so waited in the large rooms of the 

 Department of Chronometers and Time 

 Service, while the rest of the visitors 

 took stations on the lawn outside the 

 open windows. Promptly at 5 minutes 

 of 12 the current was turned on by 

 Hon. Paul Morton, the Secretary of 

 the Navy, all the connecting circuits 

 having previously been closed, and the 

 transmitting clock at once began to 

 send out a click over the wires at every 

 swing of the pendulum, with the usual 

 omissions of one second at each half 

 minute and five seconds at the end of 

 each minute up to the last minute, 

 when there is a break of ten seconds, 

 followed by the click indicating the 

 exact instant of midnight. 



Through the voluntary cooperation 

 of the Western Union and Postal Tele- 

 graph Companies and the American 

 Telephone and Telegraph Co. and their 

 connecting lines, the entire series of sig- 

 nals was transmitted not only through- 

 out the United States, but very far 

 beyond its limits. In fact, a report 

 received on the following day from 

 Adelaide, Australia, showed that the 

 signals had met at that distant point 



one series coming from the east via 

 Vancouver, Fiji, and Norfolk Island 

 and the other from the west via the 

 Azores, Lisbon, Gibraltar, Suez, Aden, 

 Bombay, Madras, and Singapore. 



These time signals were followed by 

 a brief message from the Congress to 

 the nations of the world, as follows : 



"The Eighth International Geo- 

 graphic Congress, now in session in 

 Washington, sends with this midnight 

 signal from the Naval Observatory its 

 greeting to the nations of the world, 

 through the courtesy of the various 

 telegraph and cable companies." 



Those who waited a few minutes 

 after 12 had the pleasure of reading a 

 few early messages that were received 

 in reply, while many other messages 

 were received later and were read at 

 the meeting of the Congress on the 

 following day. 



This plan was carried out so success- 

 fully only through the energetic volun- 

 tary cooperation of the telegraph and 

 cable companies, to whom the success 

 of this interesting feature of the recep- 

 tion of the Congress in the nation's 

 capital was largely due. 



The following interesting extracts 

 from letters and telegrams have been 

 furnished by Rear Admiral C. M. Ches- 

 ter, U. S. N., Superintendent of the 

 Naval Observatory. The record is very 

 impressive as indicating the perfection 

 of a system bj r means of wdiich the 

 Naval Observatory clock can be practi- 

 cally heard around the world and a 

 message from the Congress delivered 



