[PRCo] Re: quick reply...The Clock

[Fred Schneider]

I hope that Ed thinks there is anything here really relevant to Barb  
Kearns that he forward it to her.

On Aug 24, 2007, at 7:49 PM, robert simpson wrote:

> I once resided in Germany and remember that each hour the radio  
> stations also broadcast a series of five (I think) "beeps" and the  
> last "beep" was exactly when the second-hand crossed 12.  Don't  
> know how they synchronized all the clocks but they did.  Each  
> station of the U-Bahn or the S-Bahn had schedules posted and the  
> trains were precisely on-time.
>
>   In those days (1980's),  they had an honor system when you  
> purchased a ticket from a machine but it wasn't collected.   
> Periodically, however, a team would enter the cars and politely ask  
> to see their tickets.  No ticket resulted in an immediate fine  
> (rather substantial).
>
>   Bob
>
> Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>   The note is called thinking out loud or planting ideas.
>
> We can get ideas in the strangest of places. This afternoon I was
> watching a children's show on PBS. The subject was watches and time
> and clocks. The skit started with the actor being asked what time
> is it. He pulled up his sleeve and asked where? New York?
> Chicago? Los Angeles? London? He had watches set for
> everywhere. Digital watches. Analog watches. A sand clock that
> didn't work very well because he had to turn his arm upside-down
> every three minutes.
>
> Do you have any idea where I'm leading you all?
>
> No?
>
> Many of our guests in trolley museums have no idea that trolleys ran
> on tracks. They have no idea that than use electric motors. They
> have no idea that they get the power from a wire overhead.
>
> They don't know that you have to pay a fare to ride because they do  
> it.
>
> And it just occurred to me this afternoon that most ever saw a
> schedule. Most do not understand the relationship between a
> timetable and a clock.
>
> Now do you know where I'm going with this?
>
> I've included the Pittsburgh Railways web site because some of those
> guys are museum members. Some interested. Some may want to help.
>
> I'm think how train stations in Europe always have platform clocks.
> I think Swiss Federal Railways may have even linked all the station
> clocks in the entire country together because I've never found them
> to deviate by seconds from one another. If you are in some of those
> countries like Switzerland or Germany, when the second hand moves to
> the top of its sweep, the train usually starts moving out of the
> station.
>
> Now where do we get a large platform clock to be installed next to
> the platform at Arden (Richfol, and perhaps later moved to the east
> site) so we can show the public (particularly children) how schedules
> and a clock relate?
>
>
>
>
>
>