Time ball for rating chronometers
Bola horaria (time ball) para puesta en hora de cronómetros
- Date
- 1829 · confidence high
- Place
- Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Robert Wauchope (British Royal Navy)
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A ball dropping at an exact hour from a mast visible from the harbour, so captains can check their chronometers without visiting an observatory. The first was set up at Portsmouth in 1829 and Greenwich Observatory's in 1833.
What it led to
- daily setting of chronometers in ports
- time balls at observatories across the empire
- radio time signals