The Cellar - July 31, 2010: Time Ball

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- - July 31, 2010: Time Ball (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=23268)

xoxoxoBruce

07-30-2010 11:51 PM

July 31, 2010: Time Ball

From the What Is It blog, and also Neatorama's "What Is It" quiz this week, a Time Ball.

http://cellar.org/2010/timeball.jpg

Quote:

A Small Time Ball that was used around 1855, this clock would sit in a railroad station or store window and was connected to a telegraph line. At precisely 1:00 P.M. daily, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich would send out a signal to all of these clocks and the ball would drop. By charging for this service, observatories could profit from keeping time. The ball we see dropped on New Year's Eve every year originated from the practice of observatories dropping a large ball from the top of the building to indicate to ships and towns the precise time each day.

So that's where that practice came from. :idea:

ZenGum

07-31-2010 01:45 AM

And I thought dropping balls just indicated the onset of puberty.

sexobon

07-31-2010 03:08 AM

When the balls dropped, men signified to each other that their timepieces were synchronized by turning their heads to the right and coughing; or, hacking which brought about the expression "time hack."

SPUCK

07-31-2010 05:28 AM

Balls!

Griff

07-31-2010 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 673650)

So that's where that practice came from. :idea:

I never looked for an explanation of the New Years goofiness, suddenly it makes a little sense. Is there a deeper meaning to the use of the ball, representing a celestial object or something, or did somebody cob together a prototype from the parts at hand?

nil_orally

07-31-2010 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 673654)

And I thought dropping balls just indicated the onset of puberty.

or weather like tomorrow when it will be REALLY cold.

ajaccio

07-31-2010 10:57 AM

Sorry, Bruce, ya really dropped the ball on this one...

sweetwater

07-31-2010 05:34 PM

And if the device was on a treadmill that was moving forward as fast as the ball was dropping downward, would it stop Time or stretch it to Infinity?:D

classicman

08-01-2010 01:43 PM

Ask the great clodfobble

TheMercenary

08-01-2010 05:42 PM

That is so frigging cool.

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