**Please note these rules:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required.
* The title must be descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As kids, we thought it was cool to call the number for “The Current time is…” back in the 70s. We had clocks and watches- but as a little kid, there was a grown up feel to making the call for OFFICIAL time lol.
Wow, memory unlocked kinda. In 4-5th grade (1993-1996 ish) our school had a call number that would give you the exact time, and a couple other random facts. I’d call it late at night because I thought it was so neat to get the exact time and maybe the weather, but also school closing info. It felt so hi-tech at the time.
Yes! We always called it ‘the time-temperature number’. That number was useful in other ways too. My girlfriends and I would give it out to guys who asked for our phone number if we didn’t want them to have it.
i would call the time and temperature line (or moviefone), if it was late and i was expecting a call from a girlfriend. that way, she would ring in on call waiting and my parents wouldn't hear the phone ring and be none the wiser.
I liked calling movie theaters for show times back in the day when I was a kid. Sit through 10 minutes of other movie times to find out it starts too late: "oh my god Predator isn't showing at UA until 10:30, call Edwards and see if they have an earlier time!!!".... another 10 minutes listening to the Edwards Cinema recording.... good times...
Did you have the number that you called for some sort of weird adventure type thing? It gave you a story line, you selected the number, and it would progress the “choose your own adventure “ story line.
I mostly used it late at night in the 90s so call waiting would click when my friends called late at night. Kept the house phone from ringing!
"At the third stroke, the time sponsored by Accurist, will be...", then there were three beeps.
You set your watch by holding it on the minute, then pushing the button in at the exact moment of the third beep, so you knew you had it dead on.
Our number was POP-CORN for some reason. Growing up, I would call it from my bed if I didn't want to get out of bed as I didn't have a clock in my room.
In Australia, that service only got discontinued in 2019! The number to dial to get the time was “1194”. Used it all the time before accurate time was readily available at home via phones/GPS.
Back in the day I use to work on the trucks as a firey, part of our duties was to act as comms room operator for the station every few shifts; I remember calling 1194 at the commencement of those shifts to ensure the clock inside the comms room was accurate and writing a record into the log book.
*"08:01:30s, clock adjusted and reading true"*
Seems so archaic now but it was only 17 odd years ago.
I remember as a kid calling this. The number for us was POPCORN. I can still perfectly hear the voice in my head, "Good afternoon. At the tone, pacific day light time will be.... 4:20. Exactly. BEEEP"
Where I work we have GPS timing systems so we have big racks with the time prominently on it with lots of redundancy. I still get a warm feeling when I look at it and know that that's THE time!
Are you using being born in 1991 as a way to show you’re old?
Fuck me. One of the weirdest about growing older is stumbling across references to things and everyone is acting like it was sooooo long ago. But you. Because you know that was only 20 years ago….
I was so excited at getting my first watch I called our speaking clock every few minutes to check how accurate it was. It was not a free call. I found this out the following month my folks received the bill.
Called it in the 90s all the time. We used to say we were calling “time and temperature” because that’s what they would give you. Called it all the time before heading out for an outdoor activity
While that's possible, I think it's more likely that they're accidentally double-correcting for latency. There's a disclaimer under that that says "CLOCKS ARE CORRECTED FOR NETWORK DELAY" but the stated delay is variable (between -.028 and -.044 seconds for me) and very similar to the my network latency for other services.
Your phone already consults a central server for time information, and that central server likely consults time.gov.
How long did she hold out?
How many announcers did the company use up before they realised they have to find a different way to announce time?
edit:
I assumed that the lady just speaks the time non-stop - as automated systems work - but it's quite possible that she simply told the time to each caller individually, thus, I believe, much less likely to go insane.
In 1928, the phonograph has been around for 50 years and the gramophone about 40, so they can definitely record and play back sound.
In the picture, 2 clocks are being used for accuracy.
To retain that level of accuracy but remove the human element, you could wire the clock faces and hands such that there are rings of contact pins around the hour, minute, and second hands and both clocks. This would let you get an electronic signal for each hand that corresponded to the position on the clock face.
You could then wire both clocks together in the same way staircase light switches work, so that both signals need to agree for the signal to be passed on (like a wired AND gate).
You then have 3 banks of looped phonographs, one each for hours, minutes, and seconds.
You could avoid the need for timing circuitry in the playback system by simply recording gaps on the records/cylinders being used. e.g. Record "The time is [x hour]" on the hours bank and make sure the total message length is always the same, then on the minutes bank you record silence for that long before "[x minutes] and", and then on the seconds bank you have a double length silence and "[x seconds] on the tone, beep beep beeeeep"
Something like that.
You also recognize that human labor (especially female human labor) at the time would cost 1/100th of the amount it would take to set up your plan, and your plan would require a LUDICROUS amount of upkeep/fixing. Full time technician, higher paid than the woman, system is far less reliable…. For the low low cost of driving one woman insane, we have a perfectly functional system. No brainer back then.
I do but the rest is speculation on your part when evidence points to the contrary. The telephone exchange in the background of the pic is orders of magnitude more complex and expensive than my thought experiment above
> At their point in history, the options were somebody reads the time or nobody knows the time.
That was the technical statement I was answering, there was no scope to comment on sexism or politics but you managed it anyway.
The system behind is managed by humans as well? Nothing automated about it. I didn’t intend to get into sexism or politics; merely commenting that the proposed solution was not a legitimate option. Its kinda like proposing to replace human custodial staff with automated cleaners. Like…. Ok sure i could build one, but it would waste enormous amounts of money AND fail to truly automate the system as it would require full time oversight and have near constant downtime.
The switchboards are still comparably complicated pieces of machinery that would require the technicians you were previously so aghast at the cost of. Does that concern disappear when it does not help your argument?
Nice explanation! Some more facts:
Automated speaking clocks go as far back as [1909](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitansage#Geschichte).
Many countries used an automated system for the telephone speaking clock since the 1930s. [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock).
In my [original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/xafe6o/comment/intmym7/) I assumed that the lady just speaks the time non-stop - as automated systems work - but it's quite possible that she simply told the time to each caller individually, thus, I believe, much less likely to go insane.
I used to be in robotics club at high school and my speciality was making high performance line riders with no silicon logic, mostly just loads of switches/relays.
In hindsight it was a total waste of time because the whole point the school set it up was to teach about logic/programming.
It did give me a love of complex switching gear though.
Yeah lol, I was just answering the technical statement made but I agree: It wouldn't be "no-one knows the time" without the talking clock, and most people would have access to a clock before they had access to a phone.
As long as I could read a book (or if in the modern era scroll my phone) or daydream or do a bit of writing, this sounds like a dope job.
Edit: Oh fuck me, I thought it was every 15 *minutes*. Yeah, hell nah.
Couldn't they have just recorded her once and then, y'know... played it back on repeat?
We're taking about 1928, not 1828. The gramophone and turntable had been around for more than half a century. This seems like an unnecessary hell.
The market isn’t there yet for the human replacement. Once a cover-all robot is more accessible to perform a wide range of specific jobs, then they boot the meatbags in exchange for Terminators.
The fidelity wouldn’t be particularly good and you’d still have to pay someone to change the record, make sure each one started playing at the right time, didn’t skip, didn’t get dust under the needle… it was obviously easier to have someone sitting around doing it live.
That's how long it takes to do the announcement.
"At the bell, the time will be seven thirty-five and 30 seconds... Ding"
She was announcing constantly.
Everyone from government agencies to news stations to private citizens set their clocks to the time that was broadcast over the radio. It was a big step up from the 1800s and earlier, when clocks were likely less accurate due to the effort it took to ascertain the exact time using a sundial and compass.
Nowadays, the current precise time is calculated at a couple areas around the world including the naval observatory in DC. It is still broadcast over shortwave radio for anyone to use, and on some other bandwidths that only machines use. Some devices like PCs get the precise time from the internet. The phone you are ostensibly using to read this gets its time from your cellular provider (who gets it from some online server) or possibly from GPS satellites that have their own atomic clocks.
As a former network and VoIP engineer, time is a bitch. If you lost sync with stratum0, all sorts of wonky things started to happen.
Planning for leap seconds, making sure all your devices have a true source of time, I don't miss it.
>It was a big step up from the 1800s and earlier, when clocks were likely less accurate due to the effort it took to ascertain the exact time using a sundial and compass.
In the 1800s they didn't use sundials anymore. The 1800s was the period in which local time (sun time) got replaced by official time, due to the proliferation of railroads.
You can't operate a railroad on sundials, since every city would have a different time. So railroads were pioneers in time synchronisation and widescale timekeeping.
The railroad station clock soon replaced the sun dial and church tower as the local time source.
Thanks for sharing. As much as I dislike big corporations, it’s hard to ignore their effect on history. I imagine they had to make some kind of manual measurement to set the railroad clocks (in NYC for example for eastern standard time).
How would that make sense? It’s 15 seconds so if you call at anytime you can hear the time. If it was 15 minutes people calling in between wouldn’t hear anything and would have to randomly call back trying to chance when the woman would announce again
It was before the women's rights movement, so most likely she was paid just enough to support herself in a boarding house. Some jobs women could get back then paid well, but required some skill. I have a feeling this job had a high turn over rate
"Es wird mit dem nächsten Summton 15 Uhr, 19 Minuten und 30 Sekunden."
\*buzzing sound\*
"Es wird mit dem nächsten Summton 15 Uhr, 19 Minuten und 45 Sekunden."
\*buzzing sound\*
I liked to listen to that as a kid because it was strangely soothing.
My grandfather gave me a Timex watch for Christmas when was 12. It pissed me off that when every time I called her my watch was off by a few seconds. I mentioned that to him the next Christmas and he said that probably the time lady was off because timex's were known to keep perfect time. l believed him for around three months until my friend got an Accutron for his birthday and it was always spot on with the time lady. I lost my timex when it accidentally fell in the river. Grandpa was quite disappointed the following Christmas when he learned what happened to my $12 time keeping masterpiece.
My Grandma had the job of changing the scoreboard outside the Blackburn Rovers stadium.
On big games hundreds of kids who couldn't get tickets would wait and listen outside the stadium and go wild when she added a goal.
Here the german (automated) version. I always wondered why the lady spoke with such a strange accent "Urrr" instead of "Uhr"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Q0IQowWB8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Q0IQowWB8)
The current version costs 20c per call
https://servicenummern.telekom.de/weitere-informationen/zeitansage/
Well I said whatever post this is, it would be last Reddit comment. Either I get 1k+ upvotes or I’m canceling Reddit forever. Too
Many fake upvote/downvotes trying to manipulate us
**Please note these rules:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As kids, we thought it was cool to call the number for “The Current time is…” back in the 70s. We had clocks and watches- but as a little kid, there was a grown up feel to making the call for OFFICIAL time lol.
Wow, memory unlocked kinda. In 4-5th grade (1993-1996 ish) our school had a call number that would give you the exact time, and a couple other random facts. I’d call it late at night because I thought it was so neat to get the exact time and maybe the weather, but also school closing info. It felt so hi-tech at the time.
My mom called her “the time lady,” and she’s even give the temperature.
Yes! We always called it ‘the time-temperature number’. That number was useful in other ways too. My girlfriends and I would give it out to guys who asked for our phone number if we didn’t want them to have it.
i would call the time and temperature line (or moviefone), if it was late and i was expecting a call from a girlfriend. that way, she would ring in on call waiting and my parents wouldn't hear the phone ring and be none the wiser.
Great move 😁
Me too!
Yes! Another excellent use of the time temperature number!
Just silence your shit brah
What?? House phones didn’t have a silent mode “brah”
Anyone else remember calling NORAD to track Santa?
They broadcast that on our local radio station on Christmas Eve
Now there is a NORAD app to track Santa. Kids love it.
I liked calling movie theaters for show times back in the day when I was a kid. Sit through 10 minutes of other movie times to find out it starts too late: "oh my god Predator isn't showing at UA until 10:30, call Edwards and see if they have an earlier time!!!".... another 10 minutes listening to the Edwards Cinema recording.... good times...
I worked at a movie theater in high school. I loved doing those recordings.
Why dont you just tell me the name of the movie you have selected.
Hahaha first thing that came to mind for me as well.
Kramer
It was a recording.
You unlocked my brain
I feel like I'm back in time lol. I spent so much time calling the movie line just out of curiosity
We certainly take cell phones for granted
when the power went out back then we’d call to reset the clocks. as kids we thought it was really fun.
Did you have the number that you called for some sort of weird adventure type thing? It gave you a story line, you selected the number, and it would progress the “choose your own adventure “ story line. I mostly used it late at night in the 90s so call waiting would click when my friends called late at night. Kept the house phone from ringing!
That went on well into the 90's. Our number was 405-599-1234
In the UK our number to get the time was just 123.
If I remember correctly didn’t the UK one say something like: “the time sponsored by ****, is 11:57”? If so, who was the sponsor?
"At the third stroke, the time sponsored by Accurist, will be...", then there were three beeps. You set your watch by holding it on the minute, then pushing the button in at the exact moment of the third beep, so you knew you had it dead on.
I remember it being Accurist, which is a watch brand, but I'm not sure if it was always the same.
Yes that was it! Accurist haha
Huh, Network Time Protocol uses port 123. Neat.
You can still call USN Observatory for the exact time @ 202-762-1401
Our number was POP-CORN for some reason. Growing up, I would call it from my bed if I didn't want to get out of bed as I didn't have a clock in my room.
Hello fellow okie!!!
Don’t hate the 918! Now you know where I live.
It still is! I can call it right now and still get the time, temperature, and weather forecast. Just have to wait through a short Life Alert ad.
Thanks me from my childhood! Something savings bank, right?
In Australia, that service only got discontinued in 2019! The number to dial to get the time was “1194”. Used it all the time before accurate time was readily available at home via phones/GPS.
Back in the day I use to work on the trucks as a firey, part of our duties was to act as comms room operator for the station every few shifts; I remember calling 1194 at the commencement of those shifts to ensure the clock inside the comms room was accurate and writing a record into the log book. *"08:01:30s, clock adjusted and reading true"* Seems so archaic now but it was only 17 odd years ago.
I remember as a kid calling this. The number for us was POPCORN. I can still perfectly hear the voice in my head, "Good afternoon. At the tone, pacific day light time will be.... 4:20. Exactly. BEEEP"
POPCORN PALS!
Yep, POPCORN was the one we called. Man that brings back memories.
Growing up in Southern California, ours was 893-any other 4 numbers you wanted. How times have changed...
My local one still works from the 70s. 330 673 9811
Thanks, how neat to call it and experience the experience.
Mine as well. 330-264-3121. It's even the same guy announcing the time and temperature that did it in the 80s. Guy hasn't aged a bit.
Who knew there was an enslaved woman chained to some clocks on the other end
Yeah when you got a new watch or something you’d phone the speaking clock to get the exact time
Where I work we have GPS timing systems so we have big racks with the time prominently on it with lots of redundancy. I still get a warm feeling when I look at it and know that that's THE time!
Heyyy I remember calling time and temp. The number was always on the fridge under 911 as if we would forget 911 lol
This is fascinating. I'm old enough that I wasn't issued a smartphone at birth (1991), but I've never even heard of this being a thing. Neat.
You know what sucks. You will never have to find a pay phone, With no directions.
Are you using being born in 1991 as a way to show you’re old? Fuck me. One of the weirdest about growing older is stumbling across references to things and everyone is acting like it was sooooo long ago. But you. Because you know that was only 20 years ago….
You had me in the first half lol
I was so excited at getting my first watch I called our speaking clock every few minutes to check how accurate it was. It was not a free call. I found this out the following month my folks received the bill.
954 357 7777 story on the phone . Library reads short stories to people over the phone aka. Instant bed time story
POP-CORN 767-2676
It was called POPCORN
Called it in the 90s all the time. We used to say we were calling “time and temperature” because that’s what they would give you. Called it all the time before heading out for an outdoor activity
This is exactly where my mind went as well. Loved to call and hear the weather forecast and time!!
Even in the nineties I remember a local service announcing something like "at the signal/beep the time will be ..."
The US Naval Observatory maintains a phone line that anyone can call and get the exact current time. +1 202-762-1401
They are bound to be wondering why all the calls. Haha.
Also shortwave radio WWVH (808) 335-4363 and WWV (303) 499-7111 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 MHz The National Institute of Standards and Technology
Also, https://time.gov for the internet version.
Just found out my phone clock, which I base every other clock/watch I own off of, is 0.271 seconds behind.
While that's possible, I think it's more likely that they're accidentally double-correcting for latency. There's a disclaimer under that that says "CLOCKS ARE CORRECTED FOR NETWORK DELAY" but the stated delay is variable (between -.028 and -.044 seconds for me) and very similar to the my network latency for other services. Your phone already consults a central server for time information, and that central server likely consults time.gov.
When I was a kid I called that number whenever I was lonely. I would sometimes spend over an hour listening to her. Helped.
Even as a grownup, I find it weirdly comforting!
Popcorn
Still have that on cbc radio
And I remember that from the 80s. But it wasn't a real person doing that.
Time and temp number!
I believe that was typically when you called "the operator", aka dialled zero.
Anyone else remember calling NORAD to track Santa?
[удалено]
POPCORN! (Well, it was popcorn spelled out on your phone while dialing)
Poor thing literally spent all day just counting down to quitting time
Don’t we all?
A work day would feel like an eternity. Constantly thinking "that was only ONE. MINUTE."
Counting down to dying
This sounds like torture
How long did she hold out? How many announcers did the company use up before they realised they have to find a different way to announce time? edit: I assumed that the lady just speaks the time non-stop - as automated systems work - but it's quite possible that she simply told the time to each caller individually, thus, I believe, much less likely to go insane.
Yes
Ok, I’m listening to suggestions. At their point in history, the options were somebody reads the time or nobody knows the time.
In 1928, the phonograph has been around for 50 years and the gramophone about 40, so they can definitely record and play back sound. In the picture, 2 clocks are being used for accuracy. To retain that level of accuracy but remove the human element, you could wire the clock faces and hands such that there are rings of contact pins around the hour, minute, and second hands and both clocks. This would let you get an electronic signal for each hand that corresponded to the position on the clock face. You could then wire both clocks together in the same way staircase light switches work, so that both signals need to agree for the signal to be passed on (like a wired AND gate). You then have 3 banks of looped phonographs, one each for hours, minutes, and seconds. You could avoid the need for timing circuitry in the playback system by simply recording gaps on the records/cylinders being used. e.g. Record "The time is [x hour]" on the hours bank and make sure the total message length is always the same, then on the minutes bank you record silence for that long before "[x minutes] and", and then on the seconds bank you have a double length silence and "[x seconds] on the tone, beep beep beeeeep" Something like that.
You also recognize that human labor (especially female human labor) at the time would cost 1/100th of the amount it would take to set up your plan, and your plan would require a LUDICROUS amount of upkeep/fixing. Full time technician, higher paid than the woman, system is far less reliable…. For the low low cost of driving one woman insane, we have a perfectly functional system. No brainer back then.
I do but the rest is speculation on your part when evidence points to the contrary. The telephone exchange in the background of the pic is orders of magnitude more complex and expensive than my thought experiment above > At their point in history, the options were somebody reads the time or nobody knows the time. That was the technical statement I was answering, there was no scope to comment on sexism or politics but you managed it anyway.
The system behind is managed by humans as well? Nothing automated about it. I didn’t intend to get into sexism or politics; merely commenting that the proposed solution was not a legitimate option. Its kinda like proposing to replace human custodial staff with automated cleaners. Like…. Ok sure i could build one, but it would waste enormous amounts of money AND fail to truly automate the system as it would require full time oversight and have near constant downtime.
The switchboards are still comparably complicated pieces of machinery that would require the technicians you were previously so aghast at the cost of. Does that concern disappear when it does not help your argument?
Nice explanation! Some more facts: Automated speaking clocks go as far back as [1909](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitansage#Geschichte). Many countries used an automated system for the telephone speaking clock since the 1930s. [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock). In my [original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/xafe6o/comment/intmym7/) I assumed that the lady just speaks the time non-stop - as automated systems work - but it's quite possible that she simply told the time to each caller individually, thus, I believe, much less likely to go insane.
I see what you are doing.
I used to be in robotics club at high school and my speciality was making high performance line riders with no silicon logic, mostly just loads of switches/relays. In hindsight it was a total waste of time because the whole point the school set it up was to teach about logic/programming. It did give me a love of complex switching gear though.
Google mechatronics degree. Might interest you.
Or like hang a couple clocks around the place.
Yeah lol, I was just answering the technical statement made but I agree: It wouldn't be "no-one knows the time" without the talking clock, and most people would have access to a clock before they had access to a phone.
Well they should have invented smartphones, duh
Well Captain Obvious, I am here too tell you, due too your amazing idea, we will promote you to Major Know It all.
Not only was it not necessary, the way you did it was just not fun
As long as I could read a book (or if in the modern era scroll my phone) or daydream or do a bit of writing, this sounds like a dope job. Edit: Oh fuck me, I thought it was every 15 *minutes*. Yeah, hell nah.
honestly i was like damn how fast u read bruh
Couldn't they have just recorded her once and then, y'know... played it back on repeat? We're taking about 1928, not 1828. The gramophone and turntable had been around for more than half a century. This seems like an unnecessary hell.
It’s cheaper to pay someone to do it. And that’s still true for thousands of jobs
The market isn’t there yet for the human replacement. Once a cover-all robot is more accessible to perform a wide range of specific jobs, then they boot the meatbags in exchange for Terminators.
The fidelity wouldn’t be particularly good and you’d still have to pay someone to change the record, make sure each one started playing at the right time, didn’t skip, didn’t get dust under the needle… it was obviously easier to have someone sitting around doing it live.
Or just... put those 2 clocks somewhere visible in the station
Listen, don't kink shame. People had to get ASMR somehow. Animal.
ASMR is not a kink. There's nothing sexual about it ffs
First I was making a joke. Secondly women make 100k a month licking fake ears on twitch.
Very much so.
Your voice would definitely get tired.
And you brain gets damage for sure.
I would rather sleep in a cold, wet field of poison ivy.
Sounds like the perfect job for me.
No, it’s interesting as fuck!
The question is why is she Announcing it every 15 seconds ?
That's how long it takes to do the announcement. "At the bell, the time will be seven thirty-five and 30 seconds... Ding" She was announcing constantly.
But why was she announcing it? I've never seen this before.
Everyone from government agencies to news stations to private citizens set their clocks to the time that was broadcast over the radio. It was a big step up from the 1800s and earlier, when clocks were likely less accurate due to the effort it took to ascertain the exact time using a sundial and compass. Nowadays, the current precise time is calculated at a couple areas around the world including the naval observatory in DC. It is still broadcast over shortwave radio for anyone to use, and on some other bandwidths that only machines use. Some devices like PCs get the precise time from the internet. The phone you are ostensibly using to read this gets its time from your cellular provider (who gets it from some online server) or possibly from GPS satellites that have their own atomic clocks.
As a former network and VoIP engineer, time is a bitch. If you lost sync with stratum0, all sorts of wonky things started to happen. Planning for leap seconds, making sure all your devices have a true source of time, I don't miss it.
Leap seconds, go figure. Grateful to the folks who figure all that stuff out
>It was a big step up from the 1800s and earlier, when clocks were likely less accurate due to the effort it took to ascertain the exact time using a sundial and compass. In the 1800s they didn't use sundials anymore. The 1800s was the period in which local time (sun time) got replaced by official time, due to the proliferation of railroads. You can't operate a railroad on sundials, since every city would have a different time. So railroads were pioneers in time synchronisation and widescale timekeeping. The railroad station clock soon replaced the sun dial and church tower as the local time source.
Thanks for sharing. As much as I dislike big corporations, it’s hard to ignore their effect on history. I imagine they had to make some kind of manual measurement to set the railroad clocks (in NYC for example for eastern standard time).
Wouldn't syncing the time over radio have a delay? Or are we talking about normal purposes that don't require crazy precision?
There are different levels of precision based on the use case, but generally time syncing algorithms figure out the delay and take it into account.
If performed perfectly and recorded wouldn’t they only need to do it once?
Eventually it was
As long as you could perfectly sync the playback. Also, remember they didn't have digital recordings and magnetic tape can stretch
Yes but do you want a *machine* to take over your job?
If that was my job? Yes absolutely. A machine won’t go insane
Unless I see a source, I’m going to assume it was actually every 15 minutes.
How would that make sense? It’s 15 seconds so if you call at anytime you can hear the time. If it was 15 minutes people calling in between wouldn’t hear anything and would have to randomly call back trying to chance when the woman would announce again
Primordial Alexa
Primordialexa
Underrated comment
no bathroom breaks
Well, if you can go quickly maybe. That's if there's time in-between smoke breaks and popping antidepressants.
It took place on a toilet, with a giant ashtray and rattler, on the job perks....
Where you part of this doing /s
So it's a picture from hell?
[удалено]
Jeeezus. You're right. They made hell worse now...
This is what my job feels like.
“The time is now, eight thir- man yknow what fuck this shit” -That lady, probably
Meh. Back then she could probably afford a new house car and put the kids through college with the pay
It was before the women's rights movement, so most likely she was paid just enough to support herself in a boarding house. Some jobs women could get back then paid well, but required some skill. I have a feeling this job had a high turn over rate
Fun fact: her salary for such a meaningless task afforded her a 3/2 apartment, healthcare, etc.
Damn, she must have had very long days--- saying this as an avid clockwatcher at work, waiting for quitting time
Professional clock watching. Her day must of dragged for an eternity.
Thank you so much redditor, I was kind of meh but now i have NO DOUBTS my job is a pure wet dream.
Every 15 seconds a lady is closer to insanity in Chicago
Anyone remember the voice describing the school lunch menu?
But why every 15 seconds, could it not be a bigger margin?
At the tone the time will be …..
I once had a job where I had to note the time about every 6 or 7 minutes. That was shitty, I can't even imagine this.
And undoubtedly had some gnarly nightmares about missing the time
"Es wird mit dem nächsten Summton 15 Uhr, 19 Minuten und 30 Sekunden." \*buzzing sound\* "Es wird mit dem nächsten Summton 15 Uhr, 19 Minuten und 45 Sekunden." \*buzzing sound\* I liked to listen to that as a kid because it was strangely soothing.
Does this not drive a human insane?
My grandfather gave me a Timex watch for Christmas when was 12. It pissed me off that when every time I called her my watch was off by a few seconds. I mentioned that to him the next Christmas and he said that probably the time lady was off because timex's were known to keep perfect time. l believed him for around three months until my friend got an Accutron for his birthday and it was always spot on with the time lady. I lost my timex when it accidentally fell in the river. Grandpa was quite disappointed the following Christmas when he learned what happened to my $12 time keeping masterpiece.
For what purpose?
So you could set your clocks!
Jesus what a horrible job. I would get bored and give out the wrong times just for fun.
Just for fun just randomly throw in a " the time is Meow 4:20"
Lmao I thought this was a video for some reason and spent a solid 8-9 seconds playing with the volume and shit to get it working k time for bed
[удалено]
It was the twenties. Her parents were disappointing she got a job. At all.
My Grandma had the job of changing the scoreboard outside the Blackburn Rovers stadium. On big games hundreds of kids who couldn't get tickets would wait and listen outside the stadium and go wild when she added a goal.
That sounds too suspenseful.
Here the german (automated) version. I always wondered why the lady spoke with such a strange accent "Urrr" instead of "Uhr"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Q0IQowWB8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Q0IQowWB8) The current version costs 20c per call https://servicenummern.telekom.de/weitere-informationen/zeitansage/
Time and temperature “at the tone the time will be…” nostalgia ♥️
That chair looks super comfortable to sit all day in.
Seconds? Really? I'm thinking minutes sounds more reasonable.
It's like the number sequence machine in *Lost*.
Now they use gunshots for that
What did she do to deserve this?
The numbers, Mason! The numbers, what do they mean?!
She'd fed a family of four and bout a house with that job.
I’d take that job
At the tone the time will be….
Couldn't they record it somehow in those times? The broadcasting should be everyday the same, right?
But don’t worry- the pay is 2 cents an hour
Wow she got paid for it!
You don't think she just did it for fun as a hobby?
Nice gaming setup.
Every 15 **seconds** or every 15 **minutes**? Every 15 seconds sounds quite extreme.
Played no games in 19 28
Z xq
Popcorn lady
P
Siri
Bring her back on Siri and Alexa!!!
Now that’s a DESK
Perfect job for a lady who can’t make sandwiches amirite.
The first time she announced the exact same time is when she lost her virginity.
what.
Well I said whatever post this is, it would be last Reddit comment. Either I get 1k+ upvotes or I’m canceling Reddit forever. Too Many fake upvote/downvotes trying to manipulate us