[BC] Western Union Clocks

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

The Western Union clocks were supposedly traceable to NBS (now NIST). They would always correspond to the correct time because they were set at exactly one second before the hour, to release the mechanism exactly on the hour. There were two kinds. One used a batteries to wind the clock about every fifteen or twenty minutes, and the other used the batteries to pull up weights about once a day. The ones with weights were more accurate because gravity is constant while spring-tension varies. The ones that used weights were also installed as master clocks in railroad stations.

Unfortunately, the radio stations clocks were not synchronized to a clock in Washington, DC --directly. Instead, there was a master clock at the nearest railroad station and it was used to synchronize the radio station clocks. Eventually, the railroad stations stopped using the master clocks altogether. In the meantime, those wires you used to see along the railroad tracks were taken down and at least one pair had been used for the Western Union clocks. The railroad stations got rid of their telegraph offices at about the same time. When the telegraph offices closed, there was nobody left to reset the master clock(s) as they naturally drifted in their non-synchronized states. Of course radio stations continued to be billed for the service, even though they were getting inaccurate time from the local railroad station.

BTW, these master clocks had mercury-compensated pendulums and even without being reset, they are some of the most accurate mechanical clocks known, typically drifting only a second or two a month.  If you own one, you can continue to adjust its compensation until in does not seem to drift at all! 

You "tune" these clocks by stopping drift over several months by adjusting only the mercury column. You ignore the actual time. Once you have adjusted it to where it does not drift, you reset the time to the correct value. I had one of these for many years until it was stolen by a moving company during a move. It is probably worth over $1k nowadays.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kaye" <sfdavidkaye at yahoo.com>

--- On Fri, 6/29/12, rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com <rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> the newscast took air at xx.55 when the hourly clock drift
> was greatest.

I'm really mystified by these WU clocks people are talking about.