Time Ball

Time ball? What on earth is a time ball???

Time balls aren't very widely known these days because they are basically obsolete. Once, however, they were an integral part of the seafaring community. Time balls were the means by which sailors could check their marine chronometers to assure that their clock maintained an accurate measure of time.

Basically, a time ball was a large painted wooden or metal ball that was originally positioned in a highly visible locale, and was dropped at a predetermined time. In this sense, it acted as a sort of visible alarm clock. Sailors could set their chronometers against this timed drop which was quite important as accurate time keeping was one way that sailors could accurately measure longitude whilst at sea.

Time ball stations set their clocks based on observations of the positions of the sun and stars. The time ball therefore was initially located at an observatory although at the introduction of the electric telegraph (around the 1850s) the time ball could be moved to a separate location and operated based on instruction from a remote observatory.

Time balls are usually dropped at 1pm. The time ball was not usually dropped at noon as the observatories would be too busy taking readings at this time.
Generally, a time ball would be raised half way about 5 minutes before the drop to alert the ships, 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.

With the commencement of radio time signals (in Britain from 1924), time balls gradually became obsolete and replaced by radio which had the distinct advantage that the ship didn't have to remain within sight of the time ball during the drop. Many time ball stations were therefore demolished in the 1920s.

References:

• Wikipedia
  
• Deal Timeball Tower
  

Reindeer

I'm going with a seasonal theme this week as we take a look at reindeer. Most people know reindeer as the animals that pull Santa's sleigh, but let's learn a bit more about what these majestic animals do for the rest of the year.

The reindeer, or caribou as they are also known, inhabit the tundra plains and surrounding boreal forest and mountains of the arctic region. They exist almost all the way around the globe above about 62° north latitude. Domesticated reindeer are common in parts of Russia and Scandinavia, while wild reindeer can be found mostly in Norway, North America, Greenland and Iceland.

Depending on the subspecies, reindeer tend to grow to between 150cm and 230cm in length and weigh between 60kg and 170kg. They predominately eat moss and lichen, which they often dig through snow to reach during the winter months.

Reindeer are a herd animal, and their herds can range in size anywhere from 20 to tens of thousands. These larger herds are common during the spring migration, when smaller herds will merge and travel slowly northwards towards the traditional calving grounds.

Some reindeer facts:

• Reindeer are the only species of deer where both the males and females grow antlers.
  
• A one day old reindeer can outrun a human adult.
  
• The scientific name for reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, translates roughly to "wild tundra-wandering deer".
  
• Male reindeer have inflatable pouches of skin under their throats. When inflated, this amplifies the males' roar during the mating season.
  

And, of course, as mentioned at the start of this weeks' post, reindeer are probably best known for pulling Santa Claus' sleigh. Santa's flying reindeer were first named in an 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore. The reindeer in this poem were called Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem. Dunder was later changed to be Donder, and later still Donner. Blixem was changed to the more widely known Blitzen. Rudolph didn't appear in the original poem.

References:

• Animal Diversity Web
  
• Ultimate Ungulate
  
• Worlddeer.org