[GreenKeys] Western Union Time

[Bruce Gentry]

Bruce Gentry wrote:
> Larry Tighe wrote:
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> Slightly "off topic" but very much Western Union (the folks who had 
>> all those teletypes) I have a collection of WU clocks.  They were 
>> made by the Self Winding Clock Co. of NYC.  WU sent a pulse every 
>> hour to a solenoid in the clock that pulled the minute and second 
>> hand straight up.
>>
>> I wrote to the NIST who opereate WWV et.al. from their time site... 
>> http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java  ....asking if 
>> there is a way to use their web site to get that hourly correction 
>> pulse for my clocks. Mike Lombardi wrote back that they don't have 
>> the 1 KHz correction pulse on the internet site that is on WWV et. 
>> al. on the hour.
>>
>> I know some of the nerds on this list talked about having their TTY 
>> machines print time...so my question is, has anyone the ability to 
>> extract a pulse from a computer to sense the hourly zeros at the 
>> above site?
>>
>> BTW, Mike (at NIST) asked if I know anything about "radio controlled 
>> clocks"...which I've never heard of...anyone here that can comment on 
>> these?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Lar
>> K2JIA
>> www.antiquetelephone.com
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>>   
> 40 years ago it was still common to see large clocks in stores and 
> especially news stands offering "Western Union Naval Observatory 
> Time".  Usually they were adjusted to run a second or so ahead of the 
> true time so the reset backtracked the second hand to zero.  At the 
> Armed forces radio station I was at in Taiwan in 1970,  we had one of 
> those clocks in the main studio. The hourly reset was accomplished by 
> a tone sent through the often unreliable telephone circuits, as well 
> as a manual sync bottom we would push when we heard the tone on the 
> main program channel. I am not familiar with the sync tone from WWV, 
> but it would make great sense for them to transmit it.  Because larger 
> hotels often had messenger calls, faxes, and Western Union teletype 
> service,  I would think there was a method of transmitting the tine 
> sync signal on the same lines.  As for WWV clocks, I have one that 
> receives a VLF signal around 100KC.  It takes a few hours for the 
> clock to recognize and process the signal, then it promptly resets and 
> displays the time.  Another interesting variation on all of these are 
> central clock systems in factories, schools, and hospitals. Some of 
> these advance every minute  when they receive a pulse, others 
> synchronize with a pulse, and the most interesting sense an audio tone 
> riding on the power line. The audio tone system can be used to turn 
> lights on and off and ring bells as well as synchronize clocks. I 
> learned about this system when I was in high school, and figured out 
> how to  ring the bells a few minutes early on Friday afternoons. 
> Nobody could restrain that stampede!
>     Bruce Gentry       KA2IVY
>