What time is it?

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Up until the Industrial Revolution, every town had kept its own local time based on the position of the sun, so there was, for example, a 16 minute difference between London and Plymouth. Railways meant it suddenly made a difference if you were 16 minutes off all the time. And telegraphs meant there was an actual way to share what time it was. Greenwich Mean Time wouldn’t become legally mandated until 1880, apparently because folks kept showing up late to court and blaming their local time zone for the discrepancy. 

But accurate clocks weren’t yet common for most people to own. So how did everyone keep up with the newly standardized time? If they lived within sight of the Royal Observatory, they could watch for the “time balls” they dropped to mark the hour (and later the clock kept up to date at the observatory’s gates). But others turned to a more… hands-on service. 

Starting in 1836, a former Royal Observatory employee named John Belville charged people an annual fee to use his pocket watch. Once a week, he’d come by and visit them and share the time on his watch—which he kept accurate thanks to his access to the observatory’s chronometers—so they could adjust their own watches accordingly. 
John died in 1856, by which time the gate clock showed the public the time and anyone could get the time via telegraph if they really needed to. But John’s 200 subscribers knew and trusted the pocket watch system, so they asked his widow Maria if she’d take up his mantle. She did so for 36 years before retiring. By the time she left the business, people definitely had other ways of accessing the time. But folks couldn’t give up their trusty time lady, so John and Maria’s daughter Ruth took over. Despite the continued advancement of time-keeping tech—and the naysaying of at least one ruthless hater—she kept up the business until 1940. She was 86 when she retired, and apparently only did so because World War II made it too dangerous for a woman of her age to walk the streets. 

[watab kid]

this was something that dawned on me when i first heard about the atomic clock , i wondered how anyone really knew ? but then i thought what does it really matter ? now i know - GPS made it clear - now not like  back then when they cared wind up watches and such things , not having yet been developed , still we needed to know or at least have some idea what time it was , 

 

toda6y - i have few instances when its a priority but because of my past i still pay attention - more than is needed , hard habit to break  after a lifetime of being on time [or early] 

i dont need to work but i enjoy it so i do - im always early , 

i no longer wear a watch , i seldom look at my phone for time , life is going by too fast as it is , i wonder often if there might be a way to slow  it down 

[Rye Miles #13621]

 

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

BEER 0:clock ? 

[Texas Maverick]

37 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

 

Watched it all the time as a kid.

 

TM

[Texas Lizard]

I prefer it is 5 o'clock somewhere...

 

Texas Lizard

 

Margarita Time

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv

 

I was thinking about this, sort of, last night. After more than half my life in Northern California, I'm still not quite used to how late it gets dark.
I was raised in San Diego County. There is considerable difference in sunrise and sunset times.
Here in Sonoma County:

38.44 °N, 122.61 °W

Astronomy

Sun

Rise

Set

Actual Time

5:47 AM

8:34 PM

Civil Twilight

5:16 AM

9:06 PM

Nautical Twilight

4:36 AM

9:45 PM

Astronomical Twilight

3:51 AM

10:30 PM

Length of Visible Light

15 h 50 m

Length of Day

14 h 47 m

 

The city where I was raised:

33.19 °N, 117.25 °W

Sun

Rise

Set

Actual Time

5:40 AM

7:58 PM

Civil Twilight

5:12 AM

8:27 PM

Nautical Twilight

4:36 AM

9:02 PM

Astronomical Twilight

3:58 AM

9:40 PM

Length of Visible Light

15 h 15 m

Length of Day

14 h 17 m

 

Over half an hour difference in time of sunset.  It lengthens to about 48 minutes maximum difference.  

[Texas Lizard]

Worried about the summer...Try King Salmon, Alaska....Summer was light at 2 in the morning....Winter was a long night....If you had company, a long night was good....

 

Texas Lizard

[Pat Riot]

I have always been a clock watcher and I have always been fascinated by time. Time travel, time changes, time in general. 
As a kid I synchronized all of clocks and my watches using the phone number you could call for the correct time to the second. 
It was a good watch that only lost a couple of seconds a month. 
Now I have atomic time in my hands and everywhere I go through my smart phone. 
 

Here’s a screen shot of my Atomic Time app. I keep it simple. 

 

[J-BAR #18287]

...and then the snooze alarm was invented and the exact time was rendered irrelevant.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot said:

As a kid I synchronized all of clocks and my watches using the phone number you could call for the correct time to the second. 

 

Not WWV, FORT COLLINS,  COLORADO?  Next Tone begins at 3 hours 46 minutes Greenwich Mean Time (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick) BEEEEEEEEP

[Pat Riot]

58 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Not WWV, FORT COLLINS,  COLORADO?  Next Tone begins at 3 hours 46 minutes Greenwich Mean Time (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick) BEEEEEEEEP

It probably was WWV. That sounds very familiar. 

[Cypress Sun]

 

[Doc Shapiro]

9 hours ago, Texas Lizard said:

I prefer it is 5 o'clock somewhere...

 

Texas Lizard

 

Margarita Time

This is my preference as well.  Though I'm not so in liking of that particular drink...

[Texas Lizard]

34 minutes ago, Doc Shapiro said:

This is my preference as well.  Though I'm not so in liking of that particular drink...

There is always the virgin margarita......

 

Texas Lizard

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot said:

It probably was WWV. That sounds very familiar. 

 

 

WWV is/was short wave radio. 

[watab kid]

on my phone its 00:16 , thats late enough for me to think i need to go to bed , ill do that real quick , , gotta get up early and drive south for camper replacement refrigerator  , probably not using the motor home this trip to north dakota but we need a working refrigerator so im planning to camp in my truck - or the tent i always have along ,m ill get by , i always do , 

[Doc Shapiro]

6 hours ago, Texas Lizard said:

There is always the virgin margarita......

 

Texas Lizard

Or one made of bourbon, neat.

[Texas Lizard]

6 hours ago, Doc Shapiro said:

Or one made of bourbon, neat.

Do they call that one a trans margarita???

 

Texas Lizard

[Doc Shapiro]

1 hour ago, Texas Lizard said:

Do they call that one a trans margarita???

 

Texas Lizard

Negative.  And that was really bad.

[Pat Riot]

19 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

WWV is/was short wave radio. 

Perhaps the lady at the phone company

was listening to that as she told me the time. It was nearly 60 flippin’ years ago. 

[Rip Snorter]

Why does this flash me back to the best phone operator ever - Ernestine!

[Rip Snorter]

Been retired quite a long time.  At first, no watch. That did not work, been wearing one the last 15 + years.  Helps me keep to the schedule my dogs like. 

[watab kid]

On 6/9/2025 at 9:14 AM, Rye Miles #13621 said:

 

yes that was my second thought , now its stuck in my ear the rest of the night 

[Blackwater 53393]

On 6/9/2025 at 12:09 PM, Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 said:

BEER 0:clock ? 

Leads to pee o’clock!!

[Will Kane]

On 6/9/2025 at 11:30 PM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

WWV is/was short wave radio. 

2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0 & 20.0 Mhz. on your shortwave radio dial, or 303-499-7111 on your telephone or https://www.time.gov/ on your computer.

 

[Eyesa Horg]

That link says my phone is .515 seconds fast. No wonder I'm always early 🤠

[Sedalia Dave]

Shortwave Time Transmitters

 

Even though several are on the same frequency, they have unique identifiers in their signal so you can tell which site you are receiving.

 

Way back when, I had a time standard that had a receiver in it that would synchronize with WWVB or WWVH. To make it even more accurate, you could put in an offset to compensate for the propagation delay.