Time ball

A time ball is mounted on an elevated location and highly visible signal ball that has been dropped on a specified date, which allowed sailors to check their marine chronometers. The precise knowledge of the time was essential to determine the longitude of the position of a ship at sea exactly in the 19th century. It was therefore important to be able to set the chronometer in the port accurate to the second.

Time balls were associated with observatories and were usually triggered electrically. The trigger point was predominantly 13 clock Greenwich Time. The ball was usually five minutes before raised to half height and quite pulled up two or three minutes before the fall.

History

The British Captain Robert Wauchope (1788-1862) had in 1824 submitted the proposal for the establishment of long balls at the Admiralty. As of 1829, the first time ball in Portsmouth was tested. 1833 followed by others in Greenwich and on St. Helena, 1836 in Cape Town. As the first German port of Cuxhaven received in 1874 a time ball. This was followed Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Świnoujście and Neufahrwasser in Gdansk.

Worldwide, there were about 160 time balls, one of which still exist about 60 pieces. Most were demolished in the 1920s after their task was taken over in 1907 by the time signal transmitters ( Germany 1910, UK 1924).

Trivia

In New York, was installed at New Year's Eve 1907 at skyscraper One Times Square, Times Square Ball, who has since been an annual minute is lowered with a countdown on a flag pole before the new year. This traditional ball-drop ceremony called one of the highlights of the American New Year's Eve celebrations and is now broadcast worldwide. It is based on the idea of ​​the time ball.