Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: rees@pisa.ifs.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Spring Ahead, Fall Behind Message-ID: <14250@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 1 Nov 90 21:00:55 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: rees@citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Organization: University of Michigan IFS Project Lines: 76 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 783, Message 3 of 4 In article <14168@accuvax.nwu.edu>, TELECOM Moderator notes: Ask me about the Western Union Clock Service sometime. :) PAT] OK, I'll ask. I have a clock at home that's marked on the face "Western Union, Naval Observatory Time." It originally held two F-cells that wound up an ordinary pendulum clock mechanism. The interesting part is that it also has terminals to connect wires from "outside." The clock apparently expects to get a synchronizing pulse on these wires. If the clock is within five minutes of the top of the hour, then the trailing edge of the pulse will set it to exactly on the hour. I have no specs on the pulse, but the clock seems to be happiest with about a 6-volt, half-second pulse. So, I called up Western Union to ask them what it would cost to have the synchronizing pulses brought into my house. The rep I talked to had never heard of this service. What I did was replace the F-cells with alkaline D-cells. For the pulses, I went to the local Service Merchandise and bought the cheapest alarm watch they had that could be set to beep every hour on the hour. I soldered a couple of wires to the piezo element and designed a little circuit with a FET front end (so as not to load down the watch battery) and a big power transistor to fire a pulse at the synchronizing solenoid in the clock. So every ten minutes or so, the clock makes a soft whirring sound as the spring winds up, and every hour the watch beeps and the synchronizing solenoid pulls in with a satisfying "ker-chunk." I love this clock. I love to picture thousands of them across the country all ker-chunking at the same time. When were these clocks first deployed? How long did they last? Where were they installed? How much did it cost to have the pulses delivered? Was there really a network of wires stretching across the country from the Naval Observatory in Bethesda? [Moderator's Note: I replaced the batteries in mine with a three volt DC transformer I plug in the wall. I've never heard of them winding every ten minutes; usually it is once an hour, and the winding takes 8-10 seconds, depending on the strength of the batteries. Western Union first offered the service a few years before the start of this century. They discontinued it about 1965. No one at Western Union has heard of it unless they've worked there more than 25 years and/or have read the history of the company. Even 30 years ago it was being 'phased out' with only grandfathered customers allowed to keep it. If you have the clock hanging level then the use of the setting circuit is probably an overkill. Mine run without it and may be out of adjustment by one minute over a month's time. I have the setting circuits on my two clocks wired in series down to a doorbell buzzer under my desk and a nine volt battery. A call to NAVOSBY every month at 202-653-1800 and a tap of the button at the proper moment does the job. There were about a dozen circuits out of NAVOSBY in all directions which were tapped along the way and fed to master clocks which in turn fed other masters, etc .. sort of like branches and twigs on a tree. The clocks lasted for years, like all good workmanship years agp used to last. Many are still running in private places like your home and mine. One of mine is 91 years old. The one I got from the Chicago Temple Building lobby (when they no longer appreciated it and gave it to me in exchange for an electric clock I gave them I got at Fields!) had a pencilled inscription on the wall behind its mounting saying it was installed May 25, 1927 in that spot. I brought it home in 1974 and restarted it. The one I got from the Board of Ed lunchroom was installed around 1910. I got it in 1972, and had to strip several coats of ugly paint from the wooden case. The ID tag on the works say it was built in 1899. I guess the Board of Ed must have been its second home. Western Union gave the clocks for free to whoever subscribed to the Time Service which cost fifty cents per month in the beginning; a dollar a month at the end. I have not seen any of the clocks at the place where they originally hung for probably twenty years. PAT]