THE “TIME” MOMENT

Northern Advocate, 26 July 1935, Page 3

THE “TIME” MOMENT

A TELEGRAPHIC EPISODE

A daily service rendered by New Zealand’s telegraphic system is that of synchronising time throughout the Dominion. Though commonplace to the telegraph staff, because it happens every day of the week, it is really a vivid moment to the privileged outsider who is permitted to stand at the superintendent’s desk of the Wellington operating room about 9 a.m. Things are normal at 8.45, save for the discovery of a fault on a line, involving tests in the operating room and calculations at the desk revealing, without examination of the line itself, that the fault is 59 miles distant. The nearest linesman is quickly on his way. We are getting nearer 9 o’clock. Operators stand up—they need not, but there is an interesting moment coming when the crisis is to be marked by a split second. The tapping of the Morse keys, hitherto a mixed medly, now changes to a rhythmic sequence—“dot-dash-dot-dot, and dot-dot-dot” —otherwise “LS,” the “All Stations” signal.

We can visualise operators at the ends of all the circuits standing to attention while this preliminary signal repeatedly goes out. Standing in front of a galvanometer, which will be operated from the Dominion Observatory, is a telegraph officer. Everyone else in the room is listening. Suddenly the needle is deflected. The officer shouts “Time,” and instantly every Morse key taps out “T I M E,” and scores of telegraph operators in every part of New Zealand check the clock. jThe Wellington signal is acknowledged promptly and the event is over until 9 a.m. next day. On machine printing circuits, where transmission is automatic, the sending tape is prepared before hand, and immediately “Time” is sounded the machine transmits a bell signal followed by the letters “T I M E.” At all offices connected with the principal operating centres a similar arrangement is made for instant circulation of the timemoment, and even at telephone offices the attendants wait for the signal which keeps even the most remote clock in unison with that of the Dominion Observatory.