ACCURACY OF "BIG BEN."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1712, 15 November 1887, Page 3

ACCURACY OF "BIG BEN."

A correspondent informs as thii the performance of tho gtoat Westminster clock has now been brought to such a dogr©3 of accuracy that anyone within hearing of ita striking hr.s a standard of cunparieoa which ia for all practical purposes aocurate, and by which ha can act his watoh. Th 9 error of tho clock ia ascertained twice i.i every twenty-four hours by menna of a aigual, which it transmit automatically to Greenwich Obsjrvatory, A3 aocn aa thojo'ock acqol es an error of two (seconds (olther fast or bIow), it is regulated, ao as gradually to bring it b«ok to correct time. From Maroh 29. h to July 6th if the present year it was never nrceaaary to alter the error, which during that period waa never more than two seconds, excopt upon one day, April 3rd. The clcck went once during that time for seventeen pays without any appreciable change In the error, which was two seconds alov? all the tlms, and it often rune slow for a week or ten days at a time without there being any appreciable change m the error. In comparing a watch with the clock, it ia neoes aary m order to find the time exactly, to note the ti rat stroke of the hoar (not tha first cchip),m p ), which corresponds exactly with the beat of the pendulum which marks the completion of tho last aeci ni of the last minute of the hour. It would be well if the dally papers published, along with the leather reports and other like information, the exio' error of the Westminister clock at lpm. of the proceeding day. If suoh a plan could ba adopted, people within hearing of the clock would be able a! way a to ascertain the timo with greater accuracy. — "Iron."