TIME SIGNALS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 147, 19 December 1930, Page 13

TIME SIGNALS

THE LIGHTS AT KELBURX

There are probably quite a number of people in Wellington who do^- not know the significance- of the three lights mounted vertically on the flagstaff at the Dominion Observatory buiidJngs, Kelburn. »Theso lights constitute & time signal, more for the benefit oil 'shipping than for anyone else now that time signals are sent over the air by radio. The lamps, which are electrical, are operated from one- of the accurate clocks in the- Observatory. The lowest of the three lights is a green one, -30 feet above ground level; the middle one is red, six feet higher, and at the top, six feet higher, is the white light. On Tuesday and Friday evenings the green light is automatically turned on at 8.40 p.m.; on every day of the week the red light begins to shine at 8.50 p.m., and on every day at S.ijj p.m. the white light comes into operation. Exactly at f) p.m. all the lights are extinguished. This is a time signal which "was established long before the days of wireless, and still has its uses. It is very little trouble to operale, and, althogh its range of visibility is necessarily limited, it is used by quite a number of people, besides mariners, for phecking their timepieces.