[time-nuts] clock and cannon at noon story

Tom Holmes tholmes at woh.rr.com
Wed Feb 5 11:15:05 EST 2014


In a somewhat contorted way, isn't this the same basic method that the
national standards institutes use to keep their time ( and other standards)
coordinated? 

No flames, please, I'm just kidding.

Tom Holmes, N8ZM

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of Tom Van Baak
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 12:52 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: [time-nuts] clock and cannon at noon story

I suspect many of you have heard clock synchronization stories like this one
(there are many variations):

----------

A chap was on holiday in Gibraltar. The tour guide said that before leaving
Gib you had to see two things: The daily firing of the noon day gun on the
rock and, down in the town square, the world's most accurate mechanical
clock. So the bloke ambles up the rock in the morning, taking pictures of
the apes and arriving at the gun just at noon. There are two men in
ceremonial uniform stood ready, one next to the gun and one next to a
telescope. The man with the telescope checks his watch, looks through the
telescope and, at the right second, signals to the other guy who fires the
cannon. The gaggle of spectators cheer and as one guy packs up the cannon
the tourist ask the man what he was looking at through the telescope.
 
'Oh, from here you can see down into the town square and the world's most
accurate clock, which is on the side of the local watchmaker's shop. When
that says twelve we fire the cannon.'
 
'Oh, that's next on my list,' says the tourist, looking through the
telescope, 'I'm off down there now.'
 
After a pleasant stroll down to the town square the tourist finds himself
stood looking up at the clock he had been seen through the telescope. The
watchmaker sees him and comes out to say hello.
 
'I hear this is the most accurate clock in the world.'
 
'Yes,' says the watchmaker with some pride, 'It's not lost a second in the
last one hundred years.'
 
'That's amazing,' says the tourist, 'how do you measure it?'
 
'Well', says the watchmaker, 'Every day at noon they fire a cannon and the
clock is always spot on!'
----------

But I do have a serious question. If you have a favorite alternate version
of this (from oral tradition, book, or web) please share it with me. It
turns out there's some interesting time nuts math in some of them. Contact
me off-list since this is a bit off-topic. You know my email:
tvb at leapsecond.com 

Thanks,
/tvb


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