Time signal
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Time_clocks-1905.jpg)
A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic
Today, global navigation satellite systems (
Audible and visible time signals
One sort of public time signal is a
Accurate knowledge of time of day is essential for
Signal guns
In
In the same manner, a Noon Gun has been fired in Cape Town, since 1806.[2] The gun is fired daily from the Lion Battery at Signal Hill.
The Noonday Gun serves a similar purpose in Hong Kong. The tradition, which started in the 1860s under British colonial rule, has become a tourist attraction in recent times.
A cannon was fired at one o'clock every weekday at
In
For many years an old cannon was fired "about noon" from a mountain near Kabul.[3][4]
Sirens, whistles, and other audible signals
In many Midwestern US cities where tornadoes are a common hazard, the
Visual signals
In 1861 and 1862, the Edinburgh Post Office Directory published time gun
Electrical time signals
United Kingdom
The first telegraph distribution of time signal in the United Kingdom, indeed, in the world, was initiated in 1852 by the
Other synchronised time balls were atop the
United States
Telegraph signals were used regularly for time coordination by the United States Naval Observatory starting in 1865.[10] By the late 1800s, many U.S. observatories were selling accurate time by offering a regional time signal service.[11]
Sandford Fleming proposed a single 24-hour clock for the entire world. At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute on 8 February 1879 he linked it to the anti-meridian of Greenwich (now 180°). He suggested that standard time zones could be used locally, but they were subordinate to his single world time.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Standard_Time_from_Ladd_Observatory.png/220px-Standard_Time_from_Ladd_Observatory.png)
Standard time came into existence in the United States on 18 November 1883. Earlier, on 11 October 1883, the General Time Convention, forerunner to the American Railway Association, approved a plan that divided the United States into several time zones. On that November day, the US Naval Observatory telegraphed a signal that coordinated noon at Eastern standard time with 11 am Central, 10 am Mountain, and 9 am Pacific standard time.
A March 1905 issue of The Technical World describes the role of the United States Naval Observatory as a source of time signals:
- One of the most important functions of the Naval Observatory is found in the daily distribution of the correct time to every portion of the United States. This is effected by means of telegraphic signals, which are sent out from Washington at noon daily, except Sundays. The original object of this time service was to furnish mariners in the seaboard cities with the means of regulating their chronometers; but, like many another governmental activity, its scope has gradually broadened until it has become of general usefulness. The electrical impulse which goes forth from the Observatory at noon each day, now sets or regulates automatically more than 70,000 clocks located in all parts of the United States, and also serves, in each of the larger cities of the country, to release a time-ball located on some lofty building of central location. The dropping of the time-ball – accompanied, at some points, with the simultaneous firing of a cannon – is the signal for the regulation by hand of hundreds of other clocks and watches in the vicinity.
Radio time sources
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Atomic_clock.jpg/245px-Atomic_clock.jpg)
Dedicated time signal broadcasts
The telegraphic distribution of time signals was made obsolete by the use of AM, FM,
Time stations operating in the
Radio time signal stations broadcast the time in both audible and machine-readable
The audio portions of the shortwave
The audio from the broadcasts is available by telephone by dialling U.S. numbers (303) 499-7111 for WWV (Colorado), and (808) 335-4363 for WWVH (Hawaii). Calls (which are not toll-free) are disconnected after 2 minutes.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Low_cost_DCF77_receiver.jpg/220px-Low_cost_DCF77_receiver.jpg)
Loran-C time signals formerly were also used for radio clock synchronization, by augmenting their highly accurate frequency transmissions with external measurements of the offsets of LORAN navigation signals against time standards.
General broadcasters
As radio receivers became more widely available, broadcasters included time information in the form of voice announcements or automated tones to accurately indicate the hour. The BBC has included time "pips" in its broadcasts from 1922.[12]
In the United States many information-based radio stations (full-service, all-news and news/talk) also broadcast time signals at the beginning of the hour. In New York,
Broadcast stations using iBiquity Digital's "HD Radio" system are contractually required[14] to delay their analog broadcast by about eight seconds, so it remains in sync with the digital stream. Thus, network-generated time signals and service cues will also be delayed by about eight seconds. (Because of the delay, when WBEN-AM in Buffalo, New York was broadcasting time markers, and was simulcast on an FM station that broadcast in HD; the FM signal did not carry the time signal. WBEN does not broadcast in HD.) Local signals may also be delayed.
The
In Canada, the national English-language non-commercial
In Australia, many information-based radio stations broadcast time signals at the beginning of the hour, and a speaking clock service was also available until October 2019. However, the VNG dedicated time signal service has been discontinued.[18]
In Cuba, Radio Reloj is a radio station which has a time signal over news. Radio Reloj translates to Clock Radio.
Digital delay
Program material, including time signals, that is transmitted digitally (e.g.
See also
- Car radio, Radio Data System(RDS)
- Clock signal
- Extended Data Services and PBS
- Global Positioning System § Timekeeping
- Greenwich Time Signal
- Low frequency, (LF)
- Smart Personal Objects Technology, (SPOT)
- Speaking clock
- Synchronization
- VITC
- WWVB
- Time synchronization in North America
- Time transfer
- Time and frequency transfer
- Time synchronization
References
- ^ Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada (10 April 2019). "Noon Day Gun - Signal Hill National Historic Site". www.pc.gc.ca.
- ^ "Noon Gun -". bokaap.co.za. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ "The noon gun". Christian Science Monitor. 22 April 1982. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ "The Old Noon Day Gun of Kabul - Afghanistan". digitalsilver.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Ross, Jenna (9 April 2015). "Midwestern towns with sirens weigh nostalgia against nuisance". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ Snee, Tom (18 April 2011). "The enduring exhalations of The Whistle". Iowa Now. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ a b Aubin, David The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture p.164. Duke University Press, 2010
- ^ "Greenwich Time Ball". greenwichmeantime.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ OCLC 655205099.
- ^ "Timekeeping at the U.S. Naval Observatory". Archived from the original on 19 December 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ISBN 9780804738743. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
- ^ ISBN 0863413277.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-527-40780-4.
- ^ Licensing fact sheet 2009 (PDF) (Report). iBiquity Digital Corporation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2011 – via ibiquity.com.
- ^ Bartlett, Geoff (5 November 2014). "'The beginning of the long dash' indicates 75 years of official time on CBC". CBC News (cbc.ca). Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Taekema, Dan (10 October 2023). "The end of the long dash: CBC stops broadcasting official 1 P.M. time signal". CBC News (cbc.ca). Retrieved 2 December 2023.
- ^ "The beginning of the long dash". CBC News (cbc.ca). CBC Archives. 1939. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Kruijshoop, Alfred; Walker, Marjorie. "Introduction". Time NZ & A (Report). Retrieved 23 November 2013 – via tufi.alphalink.com.au.[permanent dead link]
Further reading
- Downing, Michael (2005). Spring Forward: The annual madness of Daylight Saving Time. Shoemaker and Hoard. ISBN 1-59376-053-1.
External links
- "The Time Ball and the One O'clock Gun". Liverpool, UK: Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory. 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
- "Perth". Travel in Western Australia. Travel Downunder. Archived from the original on 2 July 2005. — mentions the time cannon at Perth
- "Noon Gun". Durr Cannon / Research Projects. museums.org.za. South Africa. Archived from the original on 7 January 2009. — mentions the time cannon at Cape Town
- "The VNG User's Consortium". tufi.alphalink.com.au. Australia. [permanent dead link] — The VNG Users' Consortium was working on ways to solve the problem of the lack of accurate time signals in Australia.
- "The Edinburgh time gun". edinphoto.org.uk. Scotland.
- Fawcett, Waldon (March 1905). "Distribution of time signals". The Technical World. Vol. 3, no. 1. pp. 19–26. U.S. Naval Observatoryat Washington, DC – the determination of time and other important astronomical work.
-
- Magazine was published from 1904–1905 by the Armour Institute of Technology.
- Magazine was published from 1904–1905 by the
- "Distributed time service: An upgrade to current time station technology". hireme.geek.nz. New Zealand. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2006.
- Hacko, Nick, VK2DX. "Receiving, identifying and decoding time signals". GenesisRadio.com.au. Australia. Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)