The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

ELECTRIC TIME-BALLS. 743
NELSON'S MONUMENT AND TIME-BALL.
On my first visit to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1855, I was
much gratified in visiting its ancient monuments, and the
relics of by-gone centuries. There was nothing, however, that
gave me more pleasure, than a visit to Calton-Hill, and viewing the scenery, spread out before me, from the top of the
Nelson Monument. The great deeds of the intrepid Nelson,
whose heroic fame, stands brilliant in the annals of Old England, served to make the spot sacred, on which the monument
stood-elevated high above the city. While at the top of the
monument, surveying the wide-spread scenery around me, embracing within my view the ancient castle, King Arthur's seat,
Holyrood, the old city of Edinburgh, the surrounding bays
and distant hills, I saw the time-ball descend. It was above
me, and it appeared to be of immense dimensions. It was
exactly 1 o'clock, P. M. It seemed to come down rapid, but
noiseless. I looked at it in silence, and a thousand thoughts
rushed upon me in rapid succession. It reminded me of the
fleeting moments passing, never again to return, and that how
soon, we frail mortals, would fall before the all-devouring scythe
of Time! Besides these reflections, it gave me new powers in
the appreciation of the electric telegraph, which to me has,
from its commencement, been an enchanting theme. It was
the electric time-ball, indicating the second, and the most
minute division of time!
The following from the Scotsman, further describes this new
stride in the sciences of the present century, viz.:
" If the public look to the monument, at five minutes before
1 o'clock, p. M., Greenwich time (now Edinburgh time also),
they will see the ball raised half-mast high; at two minutes
before, full mast high, or in contact with the cross-bars; and,
at 1 o'clock, exact to a tenth of a second, it will fall-the instant to be observed being the commencement of the fall, as
shown by the formation of a line of light between the ball and
the bars. Those who, on the monument, have witnessed the
fall of the ball, describe the effect as extremely interesting.
The huge mass is first of all seen rushing downward with terrific velocity, as if likely to carry all before it; when, suddenly,
at about three fourths down, it is brought, by some invisible
agent, almost to a stand-still; and then, with two or three
slight movements up and down, it rests on its bed-block as quietly as if nothing had happened."
On my visit to the top of Nelson's monument, I was accompanied by my family; and I took much pains in describing the