Not milisecond time distribution but time related! In the early half of the 1900s Western Union was in the time business. They would rent businesses such as banks, office buildings, etc clocks for a few dollars a month. These were pendulum wall clocks that had 2 #6 dry cell batteries inside that would wind them every hour or so. The clocks were connected to the WU telegraph line and for a minute before and after the top of the hour all traffic on the circuit would stop. Exactly at the top of the hour they would push a pulse of 50 ? volts or so over the line and it would reset the clock to the top of the hour.
Eventually WU decided to get out of the time business and stopped the service and they said all the customers could keep their clocks. It was said that at the end of that day many clocks were seen going home with some of the workers! I purchased one of these clocks about 15 years ago from a North New Jersey junk dealer who had obtained several hundred of them. My clock has a 1929 scratch mark inside and is still ticking away. These clocks were made by the Self Winding Clock Company and more information can be seen in the book "American Clocks Volume 2 " by Tran Duy Ly (page 177). It loses or gains about a minute a month depending on the moon phase or sunspots. You can see a pic of the clock on qrz.com under my call sign. 73, Bill, WA2DVU Cape May --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.