"TIME" BY WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19201, 15 December 1925, Page 12

"TIME" BY WIRELESS.

SIGNALS FROM BERLIN. WORK OF OBSERVATORY. ADVANTAGE TO MARINERS. [ut T2LTCIUFTT. —OWN CORRISPONDBNT.] WELLINGTON, Monday, The Government astronomer was at work in the Wellington observatory this morning calmly checking his clock with Nauen. Berlin, by wireless. The time signals are sent out automatically by the observatory clock itself, thus avoiding human discrepancies, and these are recorded by an ingenious machine with two pens, one of which receives and marks the Berlin time and the other records the time of tho local clock on the same strip of paper tape. As an additional check the wireless signals are taken by means of telephone receivers and a "split seconds" watch. The sun is " shot " immediately afterwards and the result compared with the Berlin time. Observations token of the stars are also checked against tho clock, the errors of which for practical purposes may be disregarded. " While Nauen is of tho greatest value as a check," said Dr. Adams, " we, no doubt, serve them in a similar way when their weather conditions are unpropitious." As a convenience to visitors to the Dunedin Exhibition, on the top of the astronomical bay in the Government pavilion, there has been installed a loud-speaker used for amplifying tho time signals from the Government observatory at Wellington, sent out at 10.30 a.m. A portion of

a receiving set lent by the National Electrical Engineering Company, Ltd., is used and an operator is in touch with Wellington every morning in order that ail the clocks in the exhibition may be adjusted to the second. The loud-speaker is

operated from a five-valve set, the aerial of which is hung along the ceiling of the court, and it attracts the attention of

many people-. The signal consists of a long dash, 3s in duration, and the beginning of the dash is the exact time. The signal is repeated at 10.31, 10.32, 10.3-1 and 10.35 a.m. The intervals between the tune signals are occupied with identification signals. "Time" is sent out on a wave-length of 600 metres and has been received over 4200 miles from the observatory. The value of this service to navigators, though no records of the assistance rendered are kept, must be considerable when heavy weather has deranged chronometers and prevented observations. Dr. Adams relates the case of a vessel from San Francisoo which, after a spell of bad weather, received the .signals, with the result that instead of keeping on a course which would have made the landfall at Napier, the vessel was enabled to make direct for Wellington, effecting a saving of coal, to say nothing of the increased security given.

While interference sometimes precludes perfect receipt of the Berlin observatory's time signals, they are clearly audible on the ear phones and generally so on tlia loud-speaker, and the ease with which a properly equipped receiving set can get such messages shows the possibility of a regular wireless communication between England and New Zealand.