
WNYC Becomes Only Metro New York Radio Station Permitted to Use Naval Observatory Time

( Courtesy of Alfred Tropea/WNYC Archive Collections )
This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.
The inauguration of WNYC's retransmission of radio signals from the Naval Observatory in Arlington, VA. Attending the event are Mayor La Guardia, Admiral Clark H. Woodward, and Captain Jay Frederick Hellweg.
A WNYC reporter explains the benefits of receiving Naval Observatory time signals.
Admiral Woodward, Commandant of the Third Naval District (reporter calls him Clark B. Woodward), discusses the history of timekeeping technologies, including the establishment of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time and time signal transmission. Mayor F. H. La Guardia talks about the Naval Observatory's contributions to science. Captain Hellweg, Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and inventor of the automatic time service device, talks about his work with timekeeping. This is followed by a detailed explanation of the time signal, including the signal itself. Mark of the time, 12 noon, and a station ID.
Editor's Note: The WNYC program guide, The Masterwork Bulletin, in 1938 noted:
"New York City's Own Station WNYC receives its time signal via shortwave from Arlington, Virginia, and hence is the only radio station in the metropolitan area which is permitted to describe its time signal as 'Naval Observatory Time,' Through the cooperation of the United States Naval Observatory, hourly time tick are broadcast over our facilities."
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 70043
Municipal archives id: LT941
This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
This morning the municipal broadcasting system is inaugurating informally placing in operation a new service the retransmission of the time signal from the Naval Observatory station and A in Arlington Virginia when primitive man began to be cognizant of the passage of time he observed measures and make the succession of light and darkness gave them the day the variations of the moon gave them the money in the change of seasons in the varying number of hours of daylight gave him the year and this morning we are dedicating this service to the advances of civilization and to the people of America's largest city in the studios of the Municipal Broadcasting System there have gathered a group of distinguished city and naval dignitaries among whom of the mayor of the city of New York the honorable F. H. The Guardian and Admiral Clark Woodward to seal this cooperation between the Navy and the City of New York May we present Admiral Clark Woodward commandant of the third naval district.
Ladies and gentlemen of New York Admiral Woodward in this record a world of ours the question of time their most important factor in regulating the affairs of our lives is such an everyday matter of fact subject that we really pay very little attention to it except perhaps when we shift the clocks ahead any lead to Daylight Saving Time as we will do two weeks hence the consequent confusion particularly in railway schedules impresses us this change at the moment and again subsequently when we shift back to normal time in September much scientific research and labor expended as well as large amounts of money on expensive and intricate instruments of persuasion to obtain extremely accurate measurements of time accurate to within one one hundredth part of a second but to kill only for astronomical purposes including the regulation of clocks and chronometer. We know that the ancient astronomers used sundials water on sand clocks and similar timetables but they have left no record as to how the exact time of the numerous after are called for nominal was determined yet we find in checking back that their calculations were correct within one minute as far back as the year one hundred forty B. c it's far greater accuracy than was deemed necessary at the time as they omitted the use of minutes Moreover. As the world progressed in scientific undertakings and knowledge the demand for more accurate measurement of time began to became ever greater the Arabians having a clear perception of the importance of extreme accuracy as early as eight twenty nine A B. determined time by the altitude of the Sun This method was adopted in Europe was not adopted in Europe until six hundred years later fourteen fifty seven we found clocks driven by weights first used for scientific purposes and fourteen hundred forty six years before Columbus discovered America but these were so under Pendle that astronomers could not place reliance in such instruments until two hundred years later when the application of the pendulum became general the subsequent gradual development of astronomical instruments has been accompanied by a car a spawning development in time keepers for being untrustworthy asked Marco clocks with pendulums are now made to great perfection while the invention of the chronometer has placed it portable and equal it trust where the time keeper in the hands of navigators and other travelers for the purpose of determining accurate local time in order to compare observations made at different places on the surface however it is necessary to take into consideration the question of longitude as local time varies proportionately with longitude one hour of time corresponding to fifteen degrees the earliest determination of latitude quoted by man as of tire dates back to the face century. When voyages of discovery began it was necessary for the Pioneer navigators to establish a prime meridian for use as a basis of their calculations naturally the starting point for Meridian selected varied according to the nationality of the chart makers of those days it is not until eight hundred eighty four that an international prime meridian was agreed upon at a conference held in Washington D.C. at that time twenty six nations including United States adopted the meridian of Greenwich and at the same time a stablish the universal day beginning at Greenwich midnight without of course interfering with local time this proposal was dictated chiefly by the desire to facilitate international Telegraph and railroad traffic as the sun rises in the east and sets in the West it is evident that for places east of the observer the time is laid up while if to the west and the time is earlier it can thus be readily understood how vitally necessary a standard time has come to rapid transportation systems such as railroads and airplanes in the United States where the large extent of the country in line shifted makes it impossible to use the time of one meridian for standard meridians have been adopted namely the seventy fifth and I get a hundred fifth and a hundred twenty at west of Greenwich so the clock showing eastern central mountain or Pacific time I exactly five six seven or eight hours slower than a Greenwich mean time clock Naval Observatory at Washington by observation of the sun and certain thick stars computer times for this country and time signals a broadcast frequently daily by radio and telegraph to all parts of the world naval and commercial ships depend upon these broadcasts for the purpose of checking their chronometers which are which are used by navigators in accurately fixing their positions of the time signal which indicates trouble clock noon is usually considered the most important. During the transmission of the time single radio stations at Arlington in Annapolis are automatically controlled by wire from the Naval Observatory automatic transmitting device which is invented by Captain Hellweg superintendent of the Naval Observatory the San Francisco signals are controlled by a duplicate device located Merril a Navy Yard which is synchronized with the Russian unstable by means of its drop of scopic dial and rotating mortars called the time signal sent from Honolulu and Babel or canals on adamant automatic rebroadcasts of the Russian signals the time signal ecu actually starts five minutes before the hour and consists of dashes during the last ten seconds of each of the five minutes in a distinctive pattern radio station doubly N.Y.C. is to be congratulated for the initiative and public interest displayed in the inauguration of a method to broadcast the time signals as accurately as a voter sent out from the Naval Observatory various commercial communication companies distribute the time signal overland while the telegraph telephone to nearly every city and country but how in the country some broadcast stations pick it up or rebroadcast from the source but radio station W. N.Y.C. has a special receiver which receives a time signal transmission directly from the native radio Washington thereby slightly reducing the normal era which is necessary when landlines are used in order to properly magnetize their various relays the time signal which we will shortly here will have an average error of about two one hundredth of one second which is not considered excessive ordinary commercial navigational purposes however for those requiring accuracy to the nth degree the Naval Observatory distributes correction sheet upon request these are used by extremely accurate scientists scientists and observers.
Thank you Admiral what would you have just heard Admiral Clark B. Woodward commandant of the third naval district speaking for the United States Navy. We now present the first citizen of New York City the honorable F. H. La Guardia and gentlemen the mayor of America's greatest city after what learn accept the facts please the people of the city of New York for the great cooperation United States Navy years and is always ready to give for the city of New York and many many instances. Very happy to inaugurate this new service taking advantage of time signals from the United States Naval Observatory few people realize I believe that many non military activity is on a naval activities of the United States Navy here is one of the United States they will Observatory as a scientific institution and there's an astronomical laboratory devoted to research and scientists I recall during my time in Congress the work of the Naval Observatory and its great contribution to the science the whole world has very much amused that I'm all to hear about their split second vastness. And I just figuring out that if I can get all the employees of the Sydney like to work one second more a day it would be a net gain of thirty seven hours every day of course that's pure mathematics and practically I don't think it will work that way and we're liable to lose a second in the practical application of the. Clock. Employees of the SETI very happy to have here Captain Hellweg pay the man there seven times I will tell you something about the functions of that great institution was a pleasure they had donated them this morning I recall my days and watched and how their weekly concerts was always a saucer of recreation and rest for the membership of Congress who were you know there are some members of Congress what I want to send my greetings to the boys of the Navy band and its leader in this manner and to the remark again thank you Woodward and through you the secretary of the Navy and the United States day before this fine cooperation
Thank you mayor. You just heard the mayor of the city of New York the honorable F. H. La Guardia again we return to Washington D.C.. With Captain Frederick Taylor the green van Dam's of the Naval Observatory Capitol Hill Greg will describe the operation of the retransmission of the time. Gap in the leg of the leader of the United States Navy National Geographic expedition to camp and island last year. Received a long medal from the Franklin on May tenth for his invention of the automatic timesaver a device that does that which will be used by the. Eat old couple an official of the Newark News Radio Club in a letter as I recall the visit of the Naval Academy midget minutes Bappa nine hundred ninety nine one of them it is who came ashore with Frederick have it today as captain in the Navy and superintendent of the Naval Observatory he is famous throughout the world and he is a Cuban nautical drawn up and especially for the wonderful perfection of the automatic time signature they didn't gentleman we prevent Captain gay Frederick. Maryland guy idea. And yes ladies and gentlemen you for describing our automatic broadcasting apparatus allow me to paid tribute to the vision and the broad mindedness of the great metropolis New York as exemplified by your progressive and able and very human mayor and the honorable way to guide you. Those who have aided in his this verse indication of the awakening of the American public to the importance of accurate time received hourly for six years efforts have been made to place the Navy's I could time say those within the grasp of one hundred forty million Americans that is the taxpayers those who support the federal government who maintain our Navy and who therefore pay for the operation of our time service for six years I have looked forward to the day when every citizen this wonderful country no matter where he lives can turn on his radio whether it's a little ten dollars set or a thousand dollar consol and can receive absolutely accurate time far beyond his conception whether he is the Living on a small farm in the western plains or in a little village in northern Maine on the southern tip of Florida or Texas my first efforts were directed toward the broadcasting of this very valuable service by means of the jewelers of the United States articles were written for their trade journals and their annual convention in New York was addressed in an effort to interest them in the installation of specially constructed radio receiving sets capable of picking up the Naval Observatory and time signals direct and the broadcasting of those signals are away from above their doorways of their shops to the passing song hurrying along the streets in all the citizen all the towns of our broad land. Big radio companies were asked to design and to construct radio receiving sets capable of picking up part time signals direct and then we were hit by the Depression and I knew that it was too much to ask anyone to buy a special receiving set just to receive our time signatures my next efforts were made to broadcast the time so that anyone could receive it but only within the last year were these efforts even partially successful and then only to the extent of having a noontime signal broadcast of course that was entirely inadequate thanks to the cooperative efforts of Dr Siegel of W. N.Y.C. and mystery all coupler we have arrived at this happy day when the alla time service is being inaugurated by the greatest city in the world Dr Siegel needs no introduction you all know you are progressive in wide vision director programs of your firemen the civil Broadcasting Company A Company which all citizens of New York are just a proud doctor couplers a director of The New York News Radio Club of New York New Jersey club was said to be the oldest and largest radio dxed club in the United States it has operated over ten years and has members in nearly every state in the union and in nearly every province in Canada beside having representatives all over the world. Thanks to Maryland guardian and to these gentlemen today we see the first concrete evidence of the awakening of the American public to the importance of accurate time broadcast hour throughout the day it is hoped that soon every citizen of our broad land will become time minded and will aid in developing international hourly broadcast of times straight from the Naval Observatory when that day arrives when the listeners of the radio do not have to be told of the next musical note will be six seven or eight o'clock when all that will be necessary will be the sounding of that one note at the zero R. superposed if necessary on whatever is on there at that time then my dream will have come true a few years ago the Navy was broadcasting time three times a day with an average error of about three to five hundred to the second not being satisfied with that within six months the broadcast was jumped to six times a day and then we were at the limit of our capacity funds were not available for the employment of additional astronomers to broadcast the time more frequently than occurred one of those developments which make all men realize that there is a supreme being who controls everything lacking funs the development of this inspirational conception was naturally slow it was three years before our first automatic apparatus was completed and ready for test on the seventh of May one thousand nine hundred thirty four we began a six months in durance trial during that time naturally no one announcement was made we wanted to see if our little apparatus could stand the gaff of twenty four hours service a day for months and months on end. But some very amusing instance occurred a prominent citizen in northern New York who is quite an amateur scientist wrote to Washington to learn if the federal government knew of the new and very active times tables and if so the source of their emission He appeared very quickly in Washington after he had been informed that the invention was an American one and that the singer's Werman a thing from Washington a few months later a Chinese geophysicist from one can China food in Washington after having traveled from one kinda Berlin then to Paris then on to London and there he learned at the signals he had been receiving Arlene and kin were American citizens broadcast from Washington D.C. He spent nine weeks with us before returning to China twice within the last three years one of the leading her ologist of Europe has visited the Naval Observatory to obtain firsthand information the Naval Observatory has cast off all the dockside is and has pioneered across virgin country it is believed that the Naval Observatory is the only observer Journal world where time is determined photographically and broadcast automatically a prominent European scientist stated three years ago at a public address that the Naval Observatory is one hundred fifty years ahead of the world in time determination and time broadcast time has always been determined by the visual observation of the trying to of stars across the meridian we have developed an entirely new method we photographed the stars as a triumph of the million that entirely lemonades the personal equation or air of the various astronomers and as a place can be measured repeatedly the accuracy naturally is enormously increased we built a few years ago a particularly efficient type of underground vault where all of our master clocks are kept. They are never disturbed they are observed daily through a submarine periscope that was taken off of one of our submarines after the World War We can just see if there appears to be anything not exactly right that volatile has been very aptly described as a battleships magazine shoved into a thermos bottle and sunk below the frost line temperature pressure and humidity have been maintained constant throughout the life of that volved recently a British Harada just remarked that he had never seen clocks so beautifully treated and remarked It's no wonder they performed so perfectly our broadcasting apparatus by virtue of its design also increases the accuracy of our broadcast where before the preparation for broadcast occupied Seventeen minutes now the broadcaster is adjusted twice daily and it requires only five or six seconds to make the adjustment. Therefore all the corrections had to be calculated and applied before each broadcast and it had to be checked for accuracy now the astronomer on watch can actually see the results of his corrections as he applies and if you overcorrect he merely walks back the adjustment and applies the question in the opposite direction this automatic broadcast is capable of being set with an accuracy of one one thousandth of a second and the astronomer can actually see the measure of one one thousandth of a second on a revolving illuminated glass scale so that there can be no mistake he sees corrections and the results on the scale after the broadcast are set for the day the astronomers free to carry on his other duties every hour at five minutes before they are this electrical robo automatic starts broadcast the time signal second by second makes all the identification goes and at the end of the broadcast makes the zero hour signal cuts off automatically waits fifty five minutes repeats twenty four times a day and three hundred sixty five days a year it also receives its own signals over the air and print some on a ticker tape so we have a record of also going to send and receive during the actual broadcasting time signal day I shall explain the various identification signals as they occur which permits all to know exactly where the signal is this is being done abroad now and everybody has to pay for it we are offering it to the American public for nothing now I note that each signal is indicated by an audible signal except the twenty ninth second of each minute which is silent and actually the signboard you have noticed forest signals that means that there are four minutes to go however signal will be audible until the next one night second which will be silent in the following The signal will be the thirtieth seconds. Markup. Silence and then. One. More minutes to go. All year on the second last minute of the. Second will be silence again in the next thirty seconds. Very simple the circles are navigator on a ship in the world running along here is also going to knows exactly on the time broad. Two minutes to go. Ladies and gentlemen the. US is doing this thing automatically there's nobody in the room where the signal is being said. One more minute to go Notice this is the end of the silence. Just five seconds off. The end of the last minute. Watches all. Our signal is also twice as long as all the other second. Third or second. Minutes. Out of seven of ten seconds. Of public service on the voice of the station announcer will be heard. Well Noon Naval Observatory time New York City's own station.