A time ball is a now obsolete time signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators to verify their marine chronometers from their ships offshore. Accurate timekeeping is one means by which longitude can be determined at sea.
Read more about Time Ball: History, Time Balls Around The World
Famous quotes containing the words time and/or ball:
“For time is the longest distance between two places.”
—Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)
“It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively, without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind; Mbut when a beginning is made—when felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt—it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)