THE EARTH IS 27 SECONDS FAST
Our solid old Earth expanded, itself by about 10 inches towards the end of last century, and 20 years later "shrank back again. Tljis is the explanation put forward by the Astronomer Royal, Dr. Spencer Jones, for the otherwise unexplained changes in the Earth's timekeeping. As a timekeeper it is our highest referee, more absolutely accurate than the finest clock in any astronomical observatory. But from time to time it runs faster or slower than it should. If the Earth shrinks by one part in a million it spins faster, in the way a pendulum swings faster when shortened. The Earth about 1898 was running fast by about four-fifths of a second a | year. Then it changed to running! slow by about half a second a year, and went on losing for 20 years till it changed once more and began to run fast again. These fragments of seconds accumulate till at th 6 present time the Earth is, about 29 seconds ahead and seenW lo be still' gaining. There was a time (in 1785) when it was 27 seconds slow.'
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 213, 16 September 1940, Page 5
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187THE EARTH IS 27 SECONDS FAST Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 213, 16 September 1940, Page 5
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