Railroad Time Signal Device

Charlie Oden came out from Austin this afternoon and brought us this Time Device to add to our railroad collection. This one was used to receive and transmit the correct time in the "N" telegraph office of the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Antonio. It transmitted the time to other stations on the Southern Pacific, the Missouri Pacific and the MKT in the area. It received the signal from a national observatory, according to Charlie. At every station they had to be within 30 seconds of the correct time. In Elgin they received the correct time signal in the Telegraph Tower (now sadly gone) and people from town would call to get the correct time. Charlie said "We answered with something like this: It is now nine thirty one and fifteen seconds right (pause)......now" Charlie and many other Elgin men learned to operate the telegraph in the Elgin tower under N R Radke.