time-balls

Shipmasters, arguably, faced a more practical problem: they would have to figure out how to coordinate their position in this new linked scheme when “sailing about out of the reach of time-balls.”

The Tyranny of E-mail John Freeman 2009

In February I reported to the Admiralty that the Deal Time-Ball had been successful, and I proposed time-balls at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Sheerness.

Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896

The Report states that in the various operations connected with the trials and repairs of chronometers, and the system of time-signals transmitted to various time-balls and clocks, about one-fourth of the strength of the Observatory is employed, and it continues thus: “Viewing the close dependence of Nautical Astronomy upon accurate knowledge of time, there is perhaps no department of the Observatory which answers more completely to the original utilitarian intentions of the Founder of the Royal Observatory.” ” “With regard to the proposal of time-signals at the Start Point, it appears that communications referring to this proposal had passed between the Board of Admiralty and the Board of Trade, of which the conclusion was, that the Board of Trade possessed no funds applicable to the defraying of the expenses attending the execution of the scheme.

Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896

On this occasion at the request of the company assembled in and around the Vestry he spoke for about a quarter of an hour on Time ” the value of accurate time, the dissemination of Greenwich time throughout the country by time-signals from the Observatory, and the exhibition of it by time-balls, &c., &c., ” the subject to which so large a part of his life had been devoted.

Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896

There was also much work on important subjects more or less connected with his official duties ” such as geodetical survey work, the establishment of time-balls at different places, longitude determinations, observation of eclipses, and the determination of the density of the Earth.

Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896