The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

On the closing of a large number of the less important wires at night, and on Sundays, it is essential for reasons of economy that the circuits then open should not extend over so large an area as at busy times. They are therefore grouped together in small sections, the provincial offices on the third, and the Metropolitan on the fourth floor. The current by which the whole of the circuits are worked at the Central Telegraph Office is generated at the Blackfriars Power Station, and conveyed by mains to the basement of the building, where the accumulators are charged, and the current distributed from these to the circuits. I have been obliged to give a large number of somewhat technical details, and it would be almost impossible to describe the work of the Central Telegraph Office in any other way. But enough has been said in this chapter to bring out clearly the fact that in working the telegraphs the servants of the General Post Office keep in touch with the advance of science, and are not slow to avail themselves of every discovery which will benefit and add to the efficiency of the Service. CHAPTER XII THE TELEGRAPH (continued) A very important matter in connection with the Service is the timing of telegrams, and in order to provide for their correct and uniform timing throughout the United Kingdom, Greenwich mean time, which is received from the Observatory hourly, is distributed from the Central Office at 9 and 10 A.M. daily. To enable this to be done, one circuit to every office excepting certain principal towns is stopped just before 9 or 10 A.M. daily, and, as the gong sounds at these hours, the signal “nine” or “ten” is transmitted to the offices in direct communication with the Central Office, and these offices retransmit the signal to the smaller offices connected with them by telegraph. The exceptions I have mentioned are served by means of the chronefer. Two such instruments are situated on the third floor provincial gallery, and daily transmit automatically a current received directly from Greenwich Observatory, one to the principal towns at 10 A.M., and the other to certain selected towns at 1 P.M.