20 Jan 2012 ~ Time Ball, Cyclone Warnings & Gas Lamps

Listening to: Grateful Dead ~ Scarlet>Fire (1/17/1979 New Haven CT)

A time ball is a large painted wooden or metal ball that drops at a predetermined time, principally to enable sailors to check their marine chronometers from their boats offshore. Accurate timekeeping is one way of enabling mariners to determine their longitude at sea. Time balls are usually dropped at 1 p.m. (although in the USA they were dropped at noon - because Americans have to be different about everything.)

Damn Ronald Reagan for nixing the metric system...my life would be so much easier if I knew what 330 mL represented....by the way, it's equal to 12 oz.

This is a Signal Mast replica. Mariners subject to dangerous typhoons (season here is May - September) needed detailed information of storm direction, severity and location in order to avert disaster. Signals on the mast would provide crucial information. In 1917 the first numbered system was introduced geared to the warnings of wind conditions.

These are the descriptions to be used on the mast representing typical Tropical Cyclone Warning Signals and their meanings.

These three original gas lamps have been de-rusted, cleaned, preserved and reconnected to actually utilize gas to fuel their illumination. Gas street lighting was introduced in Hong Kong in 1865.