[time-nuts] Is this off topic?

[Brooke Clarke]

Hi Bill:

I for one think it's right on topic.  There was a very interesting PBS series 
many years ago called Connections hosted by Alan Burke.  He traced a sequence 
of inventions that led to something completely unrelated.

I've been looking into electromagnets which were the corner stone for the 
telegraph, telephone, stock tickers, various types of clocks, bells, 
teleprinters, etc.  Joseph Henry was the first person to make electromagnets 
that used close wound wire.  I think he was the first person to wrap bell wire 
(note 1) with silk and later cotton thread to act as an insulator.  This 
allowed him to make electromagnets that were orders of magnitude stronger than 
anything that had been done before.  I've asked the Smithsonian if they have 
looked at the idea of Henry as the first to use insulated wire, but have not 
heard back.  Henry was their first secretary.

(note 1) Bell wire was wire used to mechanically ring bells to summon servants 
in hotels or mansions.

My guess is that the Reifler will be restored, either by the Hill museum or it 
will be sold to someone who will.

One of the neat things about early technology is that it can last a very long 
time.

Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.precisionclock.com
http://www.prc68.com/I/WebCam2.shtml 24/7 Sky-Weather-Astronomy Cam


Bill Hawkins wrote:
> ); SAEximRunCond expanded to false
> Errors-To: time-nuts-bounces+brooke=pacific.net at febo.com RETRY
> 
> Thursday night I went to see James J. Hill's (railroad baron) time
> station in Minnesota, after waiting for tornados to clear the road
> south.
> 
> The observatory building began before the Civil War. A man arrived
> in 1870 who added a star-crossing telescope to the observatory.
> These only move N-S so they don't require a dome. Hill, in MN,
> needed a time standard for his railroad, so trains could be scheduled
> on a track without running into each other. Telegraphy made it
> possible. Hill invested in the observatory, adding a much better
> star-crossing telescope with highly accurate calibration and setting
> equipment, and a Riefler clock. That glass-enclosed and low pressure
> clock was supposed to be good to 1/20,000 of a second per day. There
> were also three Howard clocks with mercury canister pendulums. Since
> this was an observatory, one ran on sidereal time and the other on CST.
> 
> The people giving the tour knew little about the clocks. As happens with
> equipment that has fallen out of use, there were no manuals. The Howard
> clocks had been wound by a student for a time, but fell into disuse. No
> one knew what the electrical connections did.
> 
> The Riefler clock was in a basement storage area, which had once been a
> workshop. Our hosts had to clear out a lot of packing material so that
> we could see it. Alas, the bottom glass cylinder of the Riefler clock
> was broken, when 14 years earlier a network installer had punched a hole
> in a wall without checking what was on the other side. It was a later
> model
> with knife-edge pivots and two escapement wheels, probably had an 8
> second
> rewind of the small weight that impulsed the pendulum.
> 
> After Riefler came Shortt, and after that the crystal oscillator, and
> after
> that the atomic physics stuff.
> 
> I am an historian by nature. It is painful to see important predecessors
> fall into disuse as life marches on. It was like looking into a barn
> that
> once held beautiful things, but had since been overrun by mice.
> 
> This list seems to be populated by people in quest of picosecond
> resolution.
> Does anyone care about how we got to where we are?
> 
> Excuse me, but I'm despondent. I wish I had not gone on the trip.
> 
> Bill Hawkins
> 
> 
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