A Tradition of Times Square
Every December, the crowd huddles together, regardless of the elements—freezing rains, snow, or blustery winds—to see one thing. Just before the stroke of midnight, they'll begin chanting the century-old countdown. As they shout "10-9-8…," the giant ball, illumined by 2,299 hand-cut Waterford Crystal triangles covering a total of 32,256 individual LEDs in a geodesic pattern, begins making its gradual descent "…7-6-5-4…" to the bottom of the pole "…3-2-1," precisely at midnight. "Happy New Year from Times Square in New York City!"
It is the only operating timeball left in the United States; however, it has never functioned as the maritime calibration device timeballs were invented to be. Robert Wauchope, a Captain in the Royal Navy of England, knew that sailors needed a time device they could use to calibrate their chronometers which enabled ship captains to navigate, provided they had accurate time readings. So Wauchope invented the device in 1829. The device, first installed at Portsmouth, England, consisted of a large painted ball with a sturdy flagpole through the center of it. Using a telescope, sailors could see the sphere from their ships. Every day, when the ball began its gradual descent down the flagpole, the sailors knew it was 1:00 p.m. Time was not calculated by when the sphere reached the bottom of the flagpole, but rather, by when it began to move.
Timeballs became very popular in the 1800s. The first one installed in the United States was at the Naval Observatory in Foggy Bottom near Washington, D.C., in 1845. But in the 1920s, radio signals brought a more accurate way of reporting time, which made them obsolete and most were abandoned or destroyed. Meanwhile, in December 1904, the New York Times newspaper celebrated moving its headquarters to Times Square by throwing a grand New Year's Eve party, complete with fireworks. An annual celebration had begun, but when the city issued a ban on fireworks in 1907, The Times turned to a timeball for their celebration. The great sphere in Times Square has faithfully continued to ring in each new year.
Passage 2
Time Keepers of the Sea
They were large painted wooden or metal spheres that always dropped at a fixed time for very important reasons. A timeball was specially used to help the sailors. Sailors used the devices to check their marine chronometers. Marine chronometers were time devices used by people at sea. Accurate timekeeping helped mariners to know their longitude at sea.
Timeball stations used to set their clocks based on the positions of the sun and stars. The people in the stations used information from transit observations. Originally, they had to be stationed at the observatory itself. If they were not stationed at the observatory, they had to keep a very accurate clock at the station. The clock was set manually to observatory time. It was only after the electric telegraph was invented that timeballs could be operated from a distance. Thus, after 1950, these spheres could be located far from the source of Mean Time.
In the USA, timeballs were dropped at noon, but in other countries, they were dropped at 1 pm. They were raised half way about 5 minutes earlier to alert the ships, and then, with 2-3 minutes to go, they were raised the whole way. The time was recorded when the ball began descending, not when it reached the bottom. The timeball was not usually dropped at noon because the observatories would be too busy taking readings.
The first timeball was installed at Portsmouth in 1829 by its inventor Robert Wauchope, a Captain in the Royal Navy. Others followed in the major ports of the United Kingdom (including Liverpool) and around the maritime world. One was installed in 1833 at the Greenwich Observatory by Astronomer Royal John Pond. When radio time signals began (in Britain from 1924), timeballs gradually went out of use. Many of them were demolished in the 1920s.
7
Which fact is confirmed by both passages?
A.
The first timeball in the United States was installed in 1845.
B.
The radio time signals began in the United States in 1924.
C.
Timeballs were used by sailors for accurate timekeeping.
D.
A timeball continues to operate today in New York City.