An Easy Method to Regulate a Clock in the Bush.
Get two pieces of copper, tin, or brass, about six inches long, and an inch wide. In the middle of these cut a narrow slit about three inches long (the slit to be as narrow as possible to see through). Fix these pieces opposite one another, about six inches or so apart, so as to be enabled to see through both slits, facing the north or south, in a position not to be readily moved. Watch when any fixed star passes the slits, and note the time by the clock. Next night, watch the same star pass the slits, and if the time is four minutes earlier the clock is right; if more than four minutes, the clock is going slow j and if less than four minutes the clock is going fast. Choose any fixed star that is conspicuous enough to be known again ; a fixed star has a twinkling light, and a planet a steady light.—Explanation : As the length of a sidereal day is 23 hours 5G minutes, so, consequently, a star passes the meridian four minutes earlier every day. Suppose a star passes the slits 9h. 15m. on any given night, and the next night it passes at the same time, the clock is gaining, as it ought to pass at 9h. 11m.
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Bibliographic details
Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 11, 19 January 1870, Page 3
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226An Easy Method to Regulate a Clock in the Bush. Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 11, 19 January 1870, Page 3
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