[time-nuts] How did they distribute time in the old days?

billriches bill.riches at verizon.net
Wed Oct 14 11:42:30 UTC 2015


Not milisecond time distribution but time related!

In the early half of the 1900s Western Union was in the time business.  They
would rent businesses such as banks, office buildings, etc  clocks for a few
dollars a month.  These were pendulum wall clocks that had 2 #6 dry cell
batteries inside that would wind them every hour or so. The clocks were
connected to the WU telegraph line and for a minute before and after  the
top of the hour all traffic on the circuit would stop.  Exactly at the top
of the hour they would push a pulse of 50 ? volts or so over the line and it
would reset the clock to the top of the hour.

Eventually WU decided to get out of the time business and stopped the
service and they said all the customers could keep their clocks.  It was
said that at the end of that day many clocks were seen going home with some
of the workers!

I purchased one of these clocks about 15 years ago from a North New Jersey
junk dealer who had obtained several hundred of them.  My clock has a 1929
scratch mark inside and
is still ticking away. These clocks were made by the Self Winding Clock
Company and more information can be seen in the book "American Clocks Volume
2 " by Tran Duy Ly (page 177).  It loses or gains about a minute a month
depending on the moon phase or sunspots.  You can see a pic of the clock on
qrz.com under my call sign.

73,

Bill, WA2DVU
Cape May



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