7 thoughts on “Keeping your Eye on the Ball – The History of Railroad Chronometers.

  1. Movado says:

    This is the first time I comment on your site, but I’ve been reading it for about a few months. I admire the passion with which you write the articles and dream that someday I can do the same. Love

     
  2. I do not disagree with this article.

     
  3. Jeff Moser says:

    I enjoyed the article on the rail road watches, I was looking for info on the Ball watchs, I have one now and at least one of all the four major manufactures and some I have 4 or 5 of them, well done.

     
  4. […] I covered this in much greater detail in the blog posting I did years and years ago, which is also the first, last and until now, only time I’d ever mentioned the watch which is the focus of this article. If you want to read that posting, it’s here.  […]

     
  5. James Canon says:

    Not sure if you’ll get this or able to respond but I just can’t find anywhere that talks about how railroads knew what time it was . . . say, it was the top of the hour across all railroads and not just 2 mins past the hour or 3 mins before the hour. . . any guidance?

     
    • Scheong says:

      Most stations – especially the big ones – had a master-regulator clock, which was synchronised by telegraph, on the hour, every hour, using the nearest available time standard, usually an observatory. These were the clocks against which railroad pocketwatches were checked.

       

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