Precisely!
It needed just four words to tell you this
article is about the speaking clock. Known
officially as Timeline and more commonly as plain
TIM, the speaking clock is one of those essential
features of everyday life to which you give
scarcely a second thought It's there when you
want it and that's it, isn't it?
Well,
yes and well, no. In fact it hasn't always been
there and it has changed over the years. And
there's quite a bit more to TIM than history, as
I found out when I started to dig out a bit of
information about this national institution.
Synchronised
Institution
is probably a fair word since as a nation we seem
to be remarkably keen on ringing up the speaking
clock. Even in its first year, 1936, the service
registered nearly 13 million calls and it was not
a nationwide service then—that came six
years later. Today we make more than 135 million
calls a year and that's a lot of watches being
checked.
Major
organisations such as British Rail and London
Weekend Television have permanent feeds of the
clock from BT into their private internal phone
systems so employees can check the time without
making an outside call. The timing of all ITV
television programmes is synchronised to TIM
as
well, so when your local station goes over to ITN
for the News at Ten, this is done "at the
third stroke". And perhaps the
strangest—and certainly longest
distance—call to the British speaking clock
is from the factory in Hong Kong that which makes
the handsets for the new VideoPlus VCR
programming system. The in-built clock is set to
British time, courtesy of BT's Timeline service.
Crystal
control
The
accuracy of the speaking clock is beyond
reproach, within five thousandths of a second in
fact. With a built-in crystal oscillator and
microprocessor logic control, the complete
apparatus is made of solid-state microchips
and occupies no more shelf space than a small
suitcase does. Contrast that with the array of
motors, glass discs, photocells and valves of the
original speaking clock back in 1936—it took
up most of the floorspace of a small room!
The
original speaking clock message was recorded and
replayed rather like the optical sound track of a
film and the equipment represented the state of
the art of current technology in those days. This
lasted until 1963, when it was replaced by more
modern recording technology, using a magnetic
drum. It gave way to the present digital system
in 1984 and this has no moving parts at all.
The
unquestioned accuracy of the speaking clock has
also led to the association of Accurist Watches,
who since 1986 have sponsored the Timeline
announcements. With those 135 million calls a
year, this may well be the most frequently heard
advertising message of all time.
New
voice for old
Not
surprisingly, the voice of TIM has changed over
the years, somewhat akin to the regular
reincarnations of the other popular Time
Lord, and it was in fact Colin Baker, the
actor who played Doctor Who on BBC television,
who made the change or "switch in time"
to the present equipment in 1985. It was not his
voice that was heard, however.
Selection
of the clearest and untheatrical voice has always
been by national competition among telephone
staff. A telephonist, Jane Cain started it off in
1936 and lasted until 1963, when she handed over
to Miss Pat Simmons, a supervisor in a London
exchange. The present voice, belonging to
assistant supervisor Brian Cobby of Withdean
exchange, Brighton, created a bit of a stir in
1985 when it broke the tradition of female
"Golden Voices". Somehow a man's voice
seemed strange, though many other telephone
administrations had found no compelling reason
for choosing a woman. (Brian Cobby, an actor by
profession, was selected from 12 finalists
in BT’s Golden Voice competition, on 5th
December 1984.)
But
we British have our little quirks—only we
could select a female voice and then call it TIM!
In fact TIM was the three-letter code, short for
TIMe, that users dialled in the days of
alphabetical dials and the name has stuck ever
since. Nowadays we dial the more prosaic 8081, or
in big cities, the more memorable 123.
Clicks
and buzzes
But
what did people do before the speaking clock was
invented if they wanted a time check? Simple:
they rang the operator and asked her the time by
the exchange clock on the wall, but this was not
precise to the second, nor could the exchange
always answer just when the customer wanted. The
first genuine speaking clock machine was
introduced in the USA in 1927, coming to Paris in
1933, The Hague in 1934 and Switzerland in 1935.
But automatic time service (of a Heath-Robinson
kind) had been available to telephone users in
San Francisco since the late 19th century; by
listening for to an observatory clock at least a
minute and decoding clicks and single and double
buzzes against some detailed instructions you
could set a pocket watch—but it helped if
you already knew more or less what the time was!
A proper speaking clock is far less trouble!
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