WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 149, 26 May 1939, Page 9

WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

THE RIGHT TIME EVERYWHERE. One of the greatest difficulties at sea is the keeping of correct time. The chronometer-—the master clock—mpy not gain or lose more than a second during the whole voyage, but it does not follow that anyone hoard can tell the “sun” time by merely glancing at the clock, for every day as the ship bears east or west the actual time seems either fast or slow. It is because of this that clocks on shipboard are altered once every twenty-four hours. This means, ol course, that a few minutes after noon the clock is wrong, and that as the day advances the clock is farther and farther out of the truo for the position of the ship at that moment. Now, to add to the wonders of the wonderful world in which wo live, there are clocks which adjust themselves every second so that they are always right. No matter which way the ship travels, how quickly, how often it changes speed, the new electric clocks which are becoming commonplace are universally correct They always show the right time of day for tliut place. This is achieved by an automatic adjustment which speeds up the time or slows it.down. It is wonderful to think that one of these clocks will show “sun” time all through the voyage, and point to 8.15 when it gets hack to London at the very minute Big Ben is striking the quarter after eight. It is extraordinary that this juggling with time on a moving ship can he accomplished with such accuracy but the fact remains that it is now done every day at sea.—(L).