Talk:Time ball

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Discussion

Main source of info is local museem in deal, kent, based in the time ball tower on the seafront. (ie, not totaly reliable, but dont see why it would be wong) 195.137.54.92 20:44, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It appears to me that this is the basis for the tradition of dropping the ball at midnight on New Year's Eve. If I'm correct should that be mentioned in the article? -R. fiend 05:27, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

To be honnest i havent got a clue on that one, hm, in need of a bit more reasurch i think... tooto 21:08, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Noontime?

The article is confusing when it mentions that timeballs were typically dropped at Noon in the USA, then goes on to say they were NOT usually dropped at noon b/c the observatories were busy making observations. Does this just mean that's why countries besides the US chose a later time?

If I were to speculate I'd say a reason for a 1pm drop would be it's more likely any fog has burned off rather than that the observatory is busy at noon. That speculation still does not explain why the drop is at noon on the USA and 1pm elsewhere. --Marc Kupper|talk 00:14, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If -I- were to speculate, I'd say ship's companies, for whom the time signal was meant, tend to be busy at noon. It's the time of change of the watch, so most of the ship's officers would be either coming on or off watch. 2003:C6:3CB:B03B:DC40:F342:2C2B:F688 (talk) 02:02, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Brighton timeball

The one in Brighton seems to be a bit bizarre. Our article says it works hourly. The discussion at [1] variously suggests it is random, 3-hourly, or every two-and-a-half hours.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:00, 23 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That reads like a bit of a running joke. "All day in a coffee shop", "would love to meet up to discuss golden balls", etc. I think we should allow the go with what the architect says in the introduction page to the clock tower (on that site) and say (here, in the Jubilee Clocks article, and in the relevant Brighton articles) that Magnus Volk's original design, controlled from Greenwich, fell on the hour but was stopped due to the vibrations damaging the structure. We don't have a reliable source for the modern behaviour so in the meantime it shouldn't repeat conjecture about it. – Kieran T ^(talk) 15:21, 23 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the ball?

When I visited Greenwich, I was told that the expression "on the ball" derived from sailors watching for the ball to drop. If someone can find a citation for that, it might be interesting to add to the article. Apepper (talk) 09:48, 25 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

File:Timeball station.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

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Photo of raised time ball?

All the photos show the ball at the bottom. Anyone have a photo with the ball at any other position? Vaughan Pratt (talk) 00:19, 9 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]